Water treatment at personal level : An examination of five products intended for a small scale, personal point-of-use

Sammanfattning: Water, and particularly clean water is essential for humans with a profound effect on health and has the capacity to reduce illnesses. Paradoxical, water is a medium where disease causing agents could be transmitted into the human body. Water can cause illness both from distribution of pathogenic organisms into the human system and also if not consumed in a required amount, leading to dehydration and other complications. Today catastrophes and disasters hit different areas in various forms. When such an event occurs, infrastructure is often disturbed or destroyed, and the supply of fresh water may be threatened. The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) is a government agency in Sweden, with a task to developing the community’ssocietal ability to prevent and handle emergencies, accidents and crises. The agency support various actors when a crisis or an accident occurs, both abroad and at a national level. The personnelal supporting at a crisis zone is sometimes working under extreme conditions where basic needs, such as access to food and fresh water can be a deficiency. To ensure that the personnel working at these sites can continue to solve problems without risking their own health caused by dehydration or other waterborne diseases, different methods can be used to treat water for personal use. Five different products intended for personal water treatment are chlorine dioxide pills, chlorine dioxide liquid, the Katadyn filter bottle, the Lifesaver filter bottle and the UV-lamp SteriPEN. These products use different water treatment techniques to purify water and secure the access to fresh water during exposed conditions. The aim with this study is to create an information basis in order for MSB to choose water treatment product for their future international missions. This is done by examine four parameters of these different products; purification capacity, manageability, environmental impact and economic aspects. The study showed that there is no product that pervading is best according to all parameters, they all have their pros and cons. The product that was best on average throughout the whole study is the SteriPEN but only if used during 10 or more missions. If a product should be used for only five or fewer missions, the chlorine dioxide liquid is recommended to use. At sites where the raw water is heavily contaminated a combination of two products could be an option, as a result of this thesis it is recommended to combine the chlorine dioxide liquid and the SteriPEN. This study is done qualitative and the result is based on literature, laboratorial reports and own measurements and calculations. Actual field tests are needed to further evaluate the products. The importance is that the product functions practically during MSBs working conditions, so relief workers really applicate the product to purify water and not refrain because it is not compatible with the working situations. If the product isn’t used because of these reasons it shouldn’t be used because it puts the relief workers at health risks.