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TitleBest practices in social marketing safe water solution for household water treatment : lessons learned from Population Services International field programs
Publication TypeMiscellaneous
Year of Publication2007
AuthorsPOUZN Project -Bethesda, MD, US
Secondary TitlePOUZN research report series
Volumeno. 2
Pagination65 p. : boxes, fig., photogr., tab.
Date Published2007-03-01
PublisherThe Social Marketing Plus for Diarrheal Disease Control: Point-of-Use Water Disinfection and Zinc Treatment (POUZN) Project, Abt Associates
Place PublishedBethesda, MD, USA
Keywordscommunication, diarrhoeal diseases, disinfection, drinking water, household appliances, point-of-use treatment, sdicom, sdiwat, social marketing, water treatment
Abstract

In the 1990s, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on a series of field trials and published documentation, developed a household water treatment and safe storage strategy, the Safe Water System (SWS), that includes three elements : 1) water treatment at point-of-use with a dilute sodium hypochlorite (chlorine) solution; 2) storage of water in a safe container, and 3) education to improve hygiene and water use practices. This household water treatment program is rapid to implement, low-cost, and can be carried out on a national or regional scale. Household water treatment programs are also complementary to infrastructure development projects that improve the supply of water but cannot guarantee safe water quality at the household level.

Since 1998, Population Services International, with the funding of the U.S. Agency for International Development and other donors, has been involved with the design and testing of the first SWS trials and has since implemented safe water programs in 20 developing countries. This paper synthesises lessons learned, best practices, successes, and challenges of safe water solution social marketing programs and discusses how these lessons may be applied to planning safe water treatment programs around the globe. Household-level point-of-use water treatment has been shown to significantly reduce diarrheal diseases in vulnerable populations and should become an essential intervention within child survival, HIV/AIDS, and water supply programs. These and other evidence-based POU water treatment programs, scaled up and expanded throughout the developing world, could fill a critical public health gap in drinking water quality.

NotesBibliography: p. 61-65
Custom 1250, 202.6

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