Siwila Stephen, Brink Isobel C
Department of Civil Engineering, Water Engineering Division, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, Cape Town, South Africa E-mail:
J Water Health. 2019 Aug;17(4):568-586. doi: 10.2166/wh.2019.041.
Three novel and two commercially available low-cost point-of-use (PoU) water treatment technologies were comparatively evaluated using a specialized comparison framework targeted at them. The comparison results and specialized framework have been discussed. The PoU systems were evaluated principally in terms of performance, flow rate and cost per volume of water treated (quantitatively), ease of use, potential acceptability and material availability (qualitatively) with main focus on rural and suburban settings. The three novel systems assessed were developed in an ongoing research project aimed at developing a multibarrier low-cost PoU water treatment system. The comparative evaluation and analysis revealed that the commercially available systems may often produce water free of pathogens (with an apparent 100% removal for Escherichia coli and fecal coliforms) but may not be affordable for application to the poorest groups in much of the developing world. The novel systems, which were principally constructed from local materials, were more affordable, can supply relatively safe water and can be constructed by users with minimal training. Overall, bacterial removal effectiveness, ease of use, flow rate, material availability, cost and acceptability aspects of water were identified as key to potential adoption and sustainability of the evaluated low-cost PoU systems.
使用专门针对三种新型和两种市售低成本现场（PoU）水处理技术的比较框架对它们进行了比较评估。已讨论了比较结果和专门框架。主要从性能、流速和每处理单位体积水的成本（定量）、易用性、潜在可接受性和材料可用性（定性）方面对PoU系统进行了评估，主要侧重于农村和郊区环境。评估的三种新型系统是在一个正在进行的研究项目中开发的，该项目旨在开发一种多屏障低成本PoU水处理系统。比较评估和分析表明，市售系统通常可以生产无病原体的水（对大肠杆菌和粪大肠菌群的去除率明显为100%），但对于发展中世界大部分地区最贫困群体的应用来说可能负担不起。主要由当地材料构建的新型系统更经济实惠，可以提供相对安全的水，并且用户经过最少的培训就能构建。总体而言，细菌去除效果、易用性、流速、材料可用性、成本和水的可接受性方面被确定为所评估的低成本PoU系统潜在采用和可持续性的关键。
