Household water treatment (HWT) is increasingly being promoted as a
rapidly implementable and cost-effective interim approach to improve
water quality. It is a key preventive component of the WHO/UNICEF
comprehensive strategy on diarrhoea control.
This book, for the first time, sets forth global criteria that enables
users to evaluate whether an HWT option reduces waterborne pathogens
sufficiently to protect health. Through use of a risk-based framework
and by emphasizing the philosophy of incremental improvement, it is
intended to provide implementers and policy-makers with an
evidence-based and pragmatic approach to select options suited to local
conditions.
This book provides a range of technical recommendations, including:
- A step-by-step overview of how to evaluate HWT microbiological
performance
- Elaboration of health-based water quality targets ranging from interim
to highly protective, including establishment of default targets for use
in data-scarce settings
- Description of technology-specific laboratory testing protocols and
guiding principles
- Considerations relating to developing national technology evaluation
programs.
This book is especially intended for resource-scarce settings where
water quality laboratories may have limited capacity and incremental
improvements of HWT performance could have a substantial, positive
impact on public health.