Aquatabs Nepal
The need for safe water
Water is one of the basic elements upon which life on earth depends. In the absence of adequate, safe drinking water, diseases such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery and diarrhoea, together with skin and eye infections and infestations, are more common. More than 80% of illness in the developing world is due to inadequate, unsafe water supplies and sanitation facilities, causing an estimated 25,000 deaths a day - some four million children die each year from diarrhoea caused by water-borne pathogens. In absolute terms, an estimated 1,300 million people do not have adequate and safe water supplies in developing countries, and 1,900 million people are without access to adequate sanitation.
These stark facts not only implicate great misery and hardship in human terms, but also a great burden on the fiscal resources of a nation. Globally, 25% of hospital bed occupancy is attributable to water-borne diseases, and in developing countries, this is known to reach 65%, with doctor consultations for such diseases at 80%. With a typical cost of hospitalisation at US$150 per case of diarrhoea, it is relatively easy to evaluate the cost implications to developing nations. In addition there is the very often hidden cost to the individual and his community due to his reduced capacity and earnings potential.
Capital cost estimates for the provision of adequate, safe water supplies and sanitation systems have been given at US$50-75 billion per annum by the year 2000. This funding is unlikely to emerge for many developing countries. Indeed, for many, it will be difficult to even maintain the provision of services in pace with population growth.
New and appropriate strategies must be evaluated and implemented to reduce the human burden and to deflect resources away from remedial actions to more cost-effective and humanly-acceptable preventive measures.
"Point of Consumption" Methodology
Most of these life-threatening diseases are transmitted by faecal-oral cycle. This means that the transmission pathways involve food or water, or both.
Once infected, the host individual acts as a dissemination focus for the community (where adequate sanitation systems do not exist), quickly proliferating the disease to other groups through the water cycle. To prevent this spread of disease, the cycle must be interrupted, and to interrupt such transmission requires adequate and safe water. In the absence of water treatment and sanitation, the only efficient point at which the cycle can be interrupted is at the "point of consumption", by using home-based or community-based self- disinfection of water. Medentech has formulated a product to enable the safe and reliable treatment of water at the "point of consumption".
Aquatabs
Aquatabs are rapidly dissolving, effervescent tablets which deliver an accurately known and measurable dose of free chlorine, recommended for the disinfection of small volumes of water, at the point of consumption. Use of these tablets, as recommended, satisfies internationally published guidelines. The formulation utilizes the organic chlorine donor sodium dichloroisocyanurate. It is estimated that the cost of treating 5 litres of water per day is US$20 per annum*. In other words, for the hospitalisation costs of one patient with diarrhoea, sufficient safe water could be provided for that person for over seven years. (* Based on treating two litres of water per Aquatab. Treating larger volumes gives reduced unit costs).
Why a Chlorine-Based Disinfection?
Chlorine is pre-eminent as a water disinfectant with over a century of successful use and it is the universal water treatment chemical. The addition of chlorine to water has truly had a major impact on public health and well being, recognised worldwide. No other disinfectant competes with its versatility, ready availability and cheapness. It is easily used, controlled and measured in water. It is a wide-spectrum biocide, inactivating disease-causing bacteria, viruses, protozoa and helminths. Furthermore, it persists in solution by providing a residual effect. The residual chlorine level is considered to be the most convenient and meaningful parameter to be monitored. None of the alternatives to chlorine can compete with these attributes.
Why not bail water?
Boiling water for drinking is an ancient practice. Villagers and rural populations in developing countries regularly boil water prior to drinking. However, there are three main disadvantages of boiling water which present serious limitations on the potential for this method to provide safe water.
Firstly, a typical recommendation for disinfection of water by boiling is to bring the water to a rolling boil for ten minutes. This may be prohibitive in practice and possibly hazardous. Secondly, boiling water has an associated cost, both financial and environmental. To bring the water to boil and hold for ten minutes may be unaffordable. Heating fuel costs are high and also cause problems of indoor pollution. Where wood is used as a fuel, this raises a separate issue of deforestation and desertification. Harmful air pollutants, such as carbon monoxide, suspended particles, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons would be a serious problem with any large scale boiling water programme.
Thirdly, the boiled water has to be left to cool before using and has to be stored. Because there is no residual effect this creates problems with subsequent re-contamination, making it unsuitable for drinking or hygiene purposes.
Any strategy for the elimination of water-borne disease requires hygiene education and adoption of appropriate technologies for water treatment. Information, education and communication are essential components of any programme.
What are the Benefits of Aquatabs?
- Chlorine based, with measurable residual effects. Low cost.
- Solid dosage format, for easy and controllable dispensing, without the need for dosing equipment. Safe and stable, with a long shelf life- 3/5 years. Rapidly and totally soluble.
- Simple to apply with no operation and maintenance requirements, and requiring little skill to provide a controlled means of chlorination in remote situations. Compact, easy to store and distribute.
- Versatile.
- Provided in a range of sizes to suit various dosage-volume requirements, from 2 rags free chlorine per tablet to 5gms free chlorine per tablet.
- Contains no calcium or other ingredients that can cause scaling, or leave insoluble residues.
- Effective in a wide variety of water conditions, because constant monitoring of pH, chlorine-residuals etc., whilst desirable, may not always be possible.