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Small scale automated water disinfection system for rural areas

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Abstract

Most people in develo** countries live in rural areas where getting clean, drinkable water is difficult. The hygienic state of the water supplies used for a drink is contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, protozoa, or viruses. Water quality at the point of delivery is not always optimal, and the amount of chlorine concentration in the water is not proportional to the water volume. The low amount of chlorine in the water makes re-contamination very likely to occur. Despite receiving well-treated water from supply reservoirs, the water storage tank (jerrycan) used for storing water at their home grows pathogens over time. Thus, the main goal of this research was to find a solution for giving people access to clean drinking water. This paper explains the measures taken to treat water by designing small-scale automated water disinfection systems for the rural community. The system disinfects the water with chlorine in an appropriate amount depending on the water volume without human intervention. A two-pilot village around Hawassa city was selected, and the water quality in 200 households was tested by measuring the content of the free residual chlorine. The test result is below average, and the societies in these villages are vulnerable to pathogenic diseases. However, after piloting the designed automated disinfection system, the water quality test showed a satisfactory result. Numerous microbiological tests carried out have shown a 99% decrease in coliforms if water is treated with the automated disinfection system.

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Acknowledgements

The work is supported by supported jointly by university of applied science and arts of southern Switzerland (SUPSI), SALuteEDucazione (SAED), Ethiopia and Hawassa University, Ethiopia. The authors would like to thank both Universities, the two prototype technologies for water disinfection in rural environments and emergency contexts, have been developed and tested within the Hawassa University compound.

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There is no funding available for this research in any form.

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Author notes

  1. B. Khan

    Present address: Department of Project Management, Universidad Internacional Iberoamericana, Campeche, 24560, Mexico

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia

    M. H. Heyi & B. Khan

  2. CLARA Project Manager, SUPSI University, Manno, Switzerland

    D. Patrissi

Authors
  1. M. H. Heyi
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  2. D. Patrissi
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Contributions

Conceptualization, MHH and DP; methodology, MHH, DP; software, MHH; validation, MHH, DP; formal analysis, MHH, BK; investigation, MHH, DP; resources, DP and BK; data curation, MHH, DP; writing—original draft preparation, MHH, BK; writing—review and editing, MHH, DP, BK, visualization, MHH, DP, BK; supervision, DP, BK; project administration, MHH, DP.

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Correspondence to B. Khan.

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Editorial responsibility: Shahid Hussain.

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Heyi, M.H., Patrissi, D. & Khan, B. Small scale automated water disinfection system for rural areas. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 20, 12025–12040 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-04760-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-04760-9

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