Health and water quality monitoring of Pure Home Water's ceramic filter dissemination in the northern region of Ghana

Abstract

Pure Home Water (PHW) is a social enterprise that promotes and disseminates household drinking water technologies in the Northern Region of Ghana. Currently their main product is a pot-shaped Potters for Peace-type ceramic water filter, locally known as the Kosim filter. This study used household surveys and water quality testing to monitor the success of their filter program. This work builds upon the household surveys and water quality testing done by Rachel Peletz of predominately modem middle class PHW customers in January 2006 by gathering data that is newly available now that PHW has filter users in traditional communities. Thirty-five households from traditional communities and six households from modem communities were surveyed. For the water quality tests, a drinking water sample was collected from households without a filter, and unfiltered and filtered water samples were collected from households with a filter. These samples were tested for turbidity and for bacterial contamination using membrane filtration, 3MTM PetrifilmTM, and hydrogen sulfide techniques. The surveys determined that PHW is reaching poor communities: 0% of traditional filter users have access to improved water or sanitation, and monthly expenses averaged US $6.30 (GHC 57,000) per person per month.

(cont.) A risk assessment analysis found that people living in traditional households with filters had a 69% lower risk of diarrhea than people in households without the filters (p-value = 0.008). Also, the water quality tests found fairly effective removal rates. In the membrane filtration tests, filters in traditional households removed 99.7% of E. coli and 99.4% of total coliform. In modem households, the numbers were lower since the source water was of higher quality; the filters removed 85% of E. coli and 90% of total coliform. In addition to removing bacterial contamination, the filters also removed 92% and 68% of turbidity in traditional and modern households, respectively. Because of these health and water quality improvements and also positive responses from filter users, PHW is successfully disseminating an appropriate technology with significant health benefits to traditional low-income households. Key Words: ceramic filtration, diarrheal prevalence, household surveys, bacterial water quality testing, Ghana, 4 Ps.