Ceramic Water filters used for household disinfection in developing countries
GENEVA — A study of four household-based technologies for water disinfection has found that household chlorination is the most cost-effective of the four for preventing diarrhea outbreaks in those parts of the developing world where piped-in public water is not feasible, a new World Health Organization (WHO) study has found. In their recently released study, Dr. Thomas Clasen of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Laurence Haller of WHO note that diarrhea kills an estimated 1.8 million people annually worldwide, and accounts for 17 percent of deaths of children under age 5 in developing nations. Most of these deaths are attributable to poor drinking water supplies or poor sanitation. Analyzing information from water quality programs in 28 nations, Clasen and Haller concluded that household-based chlorination, with a cost per disability-adjusted life year (DALY) of US$53, was the most cost-effective among the four technologies studied for improving water quality at th...