Influence of household practices on the performance of clay pot water filters in rural Cambodia

Abstract

Currently, only 41% of Cambodians have access to safe drinking water. To combat this issue, Resource Development International Cambodia (RDIC) has been promoting and developing affordable clay pot water filters to be sold across the country. Although the filters have excellent bacterial removal capabilities, researchers have identified that the contamination of water storage containers through improper household practices is an important issue that needs to be addressed. Twelve Cambodian households were selected to investigate the causes of contamination in plastic water storage containers used in clay pot filtration. Some of the findings of the study include: (1) improper maintenance and cleaning practices may cause an increase in bacterial counts (HPCs, TC and Escherichia coli) in treated water storage receptacles and (2) common causes of container contamination were improper cleaning, moving of the filter, placing the filter element on the ground, putting dirty hands inside the plastic container, and drying the container using a dirty cloth.