PRESS RELEASE - 11 October 2005
A UNESCO-IHE five-year research programme has resulted in a technology that successfully removes arsenic from drinking water. The “IHE family filter” is a very simple, effective, low-cost technology that can produce approximately 100 litres of free-arsenic water per day: That is to say, sufficient drinking and cooking water for more than 20 people.
This technology can help to improve the lives of millions of people exposed to high concentration of arsenic in urban and rural areas. The currently available technology for arsenic removal for piped water supply is moderately costly and requires technical expertise. It is inapplicable in some urban areas of developing countries and in most rural areas worldwide.
On the contrary, the UNESCO-IHE “family filter” does not require any chemicals, operates under gravity, and consequently does not require power supply. A single “IHE family filter” costs 35$ per piece if you make 10.
14 family filters have effectively been tested in Bangladesh, where arsenic is a serious health problem, such as vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhoea. Long-term exposure to arsenic via drinking water causes cancer of the skin, lungs, urinary bladder, and kidney.
According to the World Health Organization, there are many countries in the world where arsenic in drinking water has been detected at concentration levels greater than the current recommended value of 0.01 mg/L. These include Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Chile, China, Hungary, India, Mexico, Peru, Thailand, and the United States of America. Countries where adverse health effects have been documented include Bangladesh, China, India (West Bengal), and the United States of America.
More than 20 researchers from Argentina, Bangladesh, Ghana, Peru, Sri Lanka, Gambia, Germany, among others, have participated in the project. A centralised larger-scale technology is also been developed and tested in Greece and Hungary. The Dutch "partners for water" programme financed the first phase of the Bangladesh project. The research also got the support of VITENS, the largest Dutch Water supply company; Filtrix, Dutch company specialized in household water treatment systems, IRC -International Water and Sanitation Centre- and CSS, a Bangladeshi NGO.
The project director Branislav Petrusevski, presented this technology and explain its implications and future developments during a press conference to be held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on October 10, 2005