The most effective technologies for purification of rain water for drinking and cooking purposes

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We are working on a project for countries with severe hygiene and sanitation issues like India and Africa. I am working in the water purification division and we need to find a low-cost rain harvesting method which is feasible and cost-effective to implement in poor and developing countries inside their house. Currently, the filtration technologies are among the most common ones which are not quite accessible in these areas and it is hard to supply different parts such as the filtration cartridges. Hence, we need to find the easiest way of purification. 

I would be so thankful if you kindly share any useful information regarding the most effective and cost-effective technologies for purification of rainwater for drinking and cooking purposes . 

Thank you for your consideration and kind attention.  

Regards,

Mehrzad Pakzadeh

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9 Answers

  1. Dear Mr. Mehzard,

    Rain water falling from sky is having zero soluble solids. It may have the dissolved gases like Carbon dioxide and oxygen in unpolluted environment.  Rain water can be collected during rainy season from roof top or in a tank under the open sky. The surface run off will have the solids contributed from the soil & surrounding environment.

    The rain water collected from rooftop & open sky can after the first heavy rains turbidity less than 5 NTU & it doesn’t have suspended solids. It can be stored in Copper vessel overnight and use directly for cooking. Copper acts as disinfectant.

    Rain water is devoid of dissolved solids therefore soluble salts of Calcium and Magnesium may be added to adjust hardness to 50 mg/l. This can be made simple by preparing the solution and asking to add drop wise. The water can bed then stored in copper vessel and use for drinking.

    This recommendation is valid only for rain water collected in unpolluted area.

    We have developed a system for Residential complex to use rain water directly during rainy season. Please contact on rvsveipl@gmail.com for more details.

    Prof. Rajendrakumar V Saraf

     

  3. Good Afternoon Mr. Pakzadeh,

    Aquathin's longstanding Distributor servicing the Sub Sahara Region is Aquathin South Africa www.aquathin.co.za .  I encourage you to reach out to Gordon Bastiaans, President to review the AquaShield Antimicrobial Filter used by governments and Round About Pump in rural areas for eliminating cholera, faecal coliform and virus.

    The AquaShield is also used in off grid areas of the Caribbean islands rain catchment residences.

    Warmest regards,

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  4. There are many method to treat are water for drinking purposes. I agreed that we need more information about the raw water quality and quantity, but in general. You need to remove solids and microorganism. So, you need a low cost technology  to do so. I recommend you to read more about constructed wetland. If you have enough available area, it might be suitable for you. You also have to add some disinfection process and the end. 

  5. The British Army, and other expeditionary folk used to have available a ceramic filter device that was about the size of a coffee maker.  Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of it, but apparently that was effective, but they also carried quinine for combating malaria.

    I did find it! http://www.survivalunlimited.com/waterfilters/berkfldhistory.htm The British Berkfeld ceramic filter was and is the equal to the one developed by Louis Pasteur.  Actually, the filter was more used right in London, because the water from the Thames was dangerous, and polluted with cholera, etc.  Doulton, the inventor/developer was knighted for this filter, and it became the "Royal Doulton" filter company.

    You simply cannot offer a delicate high tech solution in an undeveloped, noncommercial community, or it loses deployment quickly, with no replacements.  I suspect ceramic filters would be far more appropriate to deploy in most places in the world, and perhaps the locals could be trained sufficiently in ceramics production to have at least one factory in their country.

  6. Hi Mehrzad,

    Drinking water treatment technologies in the case you present as you know are not a “one size fits all” . I will require a thurough source water analysis  and an agreed upon water treatment objective. From that starting foundation I can provide you a purpose designed and robust cost effective drinking water treatment system. It would have readily available component combinations including but not limited to adsorption, filtration, oxidation and distribution system Microbiological static control technologies.

    I would be happy to discuss the details with you further please let me know if you are interested. 

  7. Dear Mehrzad Pakzadeh

    The simplest and most effective method of purifying rainwater can be the use of filters with mineral sorbents, which have bactericidal and other properties.
    For each family, these can be filters made from plastic bottles, for communities - standard sand filters with the replacement of sand with mineral sorbents.
    Drinking water should not only be clean. but also healthy. Distilled water is pure water, but it is of little use and can be unhealthy.

  8. The most effective (100%) and cost effective (one cent per 30 gallons) is natures natural water cleansing microbe. Kingdom of Archaea. This is an RNA microbe that breaks down organic compounds into elemental state. Formerly known as "oil eating bacteria".  See youtube Mega-Borg oil spill cleanup. 

  9. Boil the water

    1 Comment

    1. That is an excellent first thought. That will help most of the time. But other factors are in play. extreme ph range will reduce boiling's effect. One major problem is temperature. Water boils at 210 F. a large % of microbes live above the 210 F and up to 427 F .