Evaluating household water filters in emergency contexts

What is the humanitarian need?

The project aims to provide access to safe water in communities, which do not have it currently. Drinking water quality is improved at the point-of-use through consistent use of household water treatment.

This study generates solid field evidence on the performance and acceptance of four innovative household water filters enabling last-step optimization and scale-up. The results are used to validate the simplified user-friendly practical tool for field evaluation and selection of water filters in emergencies.

What is the innovative solution?

Household water filters using membrane filtration technology are the focus of the study.

At the previous stage, the manufacturers further developed and optimized their products to increase safety, ease of use, capacity, maintenance and appearance. The current designs of the filters enable flexible use by combining gravity-driven operation and pumping, better compatibility with different locally available containers, and automatic backwashing.

What approach are you taking building evidence and how will it help your project to scale?

One of the outcomes of our previous research was the manual for filter evaluation designed for practitioners. In this project, we will implement the methodology proposed in the manual and validate it to assess the effectiveness, acceptance, applicability and limitations of four household filters in two humanitarian contexts. The project will generate evidence on the performance, acceptance and applicability of the four membrane-based household filters – two innovative products, and two products available on the market. The field evaluation will be conducted with 520 filters in total in Iraq and Occupied Palestinian Territories.

What are the expected outcomes?

The data collected during the previous filter evaluation project has been summarized in a detailed project report. The methodology used has been further adapted integrating aspects and experiences of other research groups and our own field experiences. The methodology is summarized in a comprehensive manual for household filter evaluation in the field in an emergency context. The manual has undergone peer-review and is about to be finalized and appear online as a living document, further adapted and optimized considering the experiences of the current study. We envision a short version designed explicitly for field teams.

The results for filter evaluation will be summarized in a detailed report, focusing on the evaluation of filter features, performance, acceptance, ease of use as well as the long term applicability of the products in an emergency setting. The manufacturers will use the evidence and experiences for the final optimization of the products for implementation at scale.