Local communities in Southern India are resistant to the use of chlorine for decontamination primarily because of its taste and offensive odor. Most often it is the only remaining resort to decontamination water in resource-poor settings, how could we improve on this?
It can also be a risk to use chlorine to disinfect turbid waters as cancer forming compounds can be formed. Boiling of water can be a good alternative. There is also the household biosand filter that is really good for removing ecoli from water. Check it out here: http://www.biosandfilter.org/biosandfilter/index.php/item/229
I agree about the risk Savitri, boiling is definitely one of the best options for it, except that the cost of fuel/firewood is prohibitive in rural India. Alternative fuel options such as Gobar (Dried cowdung cakes) have been used in the past, but are not widely available and accepted. The bio-sand filter looks promising (only the intermittent water kind), however compliance to the use of point of use purification methods are perhaps the most limiting factor. A centralized bio sand filtration system would involve some investment to install either in parallel or as a standalone system for decontaminating water. What do you think are the cheapest, most effective options?
Maybe SODIS - Solar desinfection of water can be a viable solution, especially in areas with intense solar radiation, as it should be the case in southern India. It is extremely cheap and completely decentralized. You can find more information here: http://www.sodis.ch/index_EN
During chlorination process , chances of residual chlorine in water become more. Residual chlorine is very harm full for health.
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