Background
Water is precious, and it has to be maintained not only for quantity but also regarding quality. The impact of different environmental challenges and manmade activsities is reflected not only in terms of depleted water but also poorer quality of the existing water. The areas marked with poor quality water resources are increasing at an unprecedented rate. It is necessary to prevent the damage to water bodies in terms of quantity and quality. Simultaneously, it is also urgent to provide everybody with quality water and adapt to the challenges of environmental changes, which are beyond the control at the local level.

Access to quality water at the rural level has a two-tier challenge: (a) lack of awareness in rural people; and (2) lack of affordable and applicable measures in the rural context. Awareness generation is one of the important activities carried out by Development Alternatives (DA) for different aspects, including water quality and its direct/indirect impacts on human health and economic status. To provide safe water to rural communities, DA started a few initiatives in form of community level Jal TARA filter, which is now fast becoming a success story. There are examples of people buying filtered water as per their requirement.

However, high initial investment, the need to pump water and centralised filtration (which may not be suitable for all conditions) necessitates a supplement approach, to ensure universal accessibility to safe water. Domestic water filtration solution is a big step forward.

Bio Sand Filters: Safe Water at Home

The Bio sand filtration technique is well known for its features of not requiring any energy or chemicals and being suitable for rural areas. This technique has also been tested successfully in various parts of world. A few years ago, CAWAST provided the technology and training to DA for casting the bio sand filters at local levels. This can be a revolutionary way of providing safe water at the rural level as well as creating livelihood options in form of casting the filters and selling them to the community.

In rural areas, no matter how great the scarcity of water, people bring water in 20-litre containers. The water can be transferred into the filter and collected from its outlet in 35-40 minutes, in the same/similar pot. This process can be done two to three times a day, filtering 45-60 litres water per day. So, practically, there is no need of changing a community’s habits except just passing the water once through the filter whenever people fetch the water.

Options for Livelihood Creation

Casting the concrete filter and its installation requires some specific skills which are quite easy to learn, but the process needs understanding of the basic critical parameters and criteria. This is an apt opportunity for persons with entrepreneur skills to earn while providing filters at the local/rural level. The investment required to initiate the enterprise is about Rs 10,000, which is a bit high considering the severe drought situation in Bundelkhand region.

Moving Ahead: Low Investment – Nominally Priced Filters

While discussing with the entrepreneurs and judging their investment capacity as well as the returns on investments, it was felt that the initial investment was a bit high, especially when trying to limit the pricing of filters based on the market (purchasing capacity as well as alternative products available). Alternatives to the containers were thought of: markets were explored; discussions with different stakeholders carried out. Al last, a better and cheaper alternative came up and the new mould required considerably low initial investment, low labour requirement and the ability to produce filters at an economic cost. All this was done without sacrificing the original technical design parameters. The best thing was that it was a small modification and refinement in traditional ways of making tanks, redesigned to make it capable of producing tanks suitable for using for bio sand filters. The product is named as Sonam Jal Filter, able to produce water as pure as gold, i.e., sona (but not at that cost).
 
Now, the Bio sand filters possess the following features:
• Considerably low initial investment for the person who will facilitate the safe water, through casting and selling them in the rural community (priced at Rs 3,000)
• Rural masons are accustomed of casting such concrete/ ferro cement tanks, so training is required only for a few components.
• Filter pricing is further lowered (approximately Rs 350, depending on local material availability)
• Low labour-intensive process of casting
• One of the cheapest bio sand filters in the world

It is expected that the bio sand filters in their existing form will be able to positively affect the life of the masses, by way of ensuring their good health and providing more livelihood opportunities to the rural poor.  q           

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