Point-of-use (POU) water treatment provides households in rural and remote communities with a means of obtaining greater control over their water quality and its effects on human health. One of the most prevalent POU interventions, the BioSand filter (BSF), is a household-scale, intermittently operated slow sand filter used by over 300,000 households. The sand and gravel media within BSFs can be housed in concrete (cBSF) or Hydraid plastic (pBSF) bodies, with the latter becoming increasingly popular due to their portability, durability, and anticipated scalability. This study evaluated whether pBSFs, which are lighter and thinner than their concrete counterparts, can maintain their integrity and performance after being subjected to disturbances that could occur in a typical household. Eight pBSFs and two cBSFs were run in parallel for 13 weeks, and three disturbances – one-time filter movement, one-time side impacts, and daily bucket impacts – were applied. Moving and side impacts affected pBSFs more dramatically than cBSFs, causing marked decreases in sand column height (6–29 mm decrease, p < 0.001) and decreases in maximum initial flow rate (18–84% decrease, p < 0.001). Brief spikes in pBSF effluent turbidity (0.98–15.2 NTU greater than mean effluent levels) also occurred immediately after disturbances.
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May 2015
This article was originally published in
Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology-Aqua
Article Contents
Research Article|
November 24 2014
Effects of physical disturbances on media and performance of household-scale slow sand (BioSand) filters Available to Purchase
Naomi C. Mahaffy;
Naomi C. Mahaffy
1Department of Civil Engineering, McMaster University, JHE 301, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada
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Sarah Dickson;
1Department of Civil Engineering, McMaster University, JHE 301, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada
E-mail: [email protected]
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Raymond E. Cantwell;
Raymond E. Cantwell
2Samaritan's Purse Canada, 20 Hopewell Way NE, Calgary, AB T3J 5H5, Canada
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Kayla Lucier;
Kayla Lucier
1Department of Civil Engineering, McMaster University, JHE 301, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada
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Corinne J. Schuster-Wallace
Corinne J. Schuster-Wallace
3United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, 175 Longwood Road South, Suite 204, Hamilton, ON L8P 0A1, Canada
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Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology-Aqua (2015) 64 (3): 250–259.
Article history
Received:
May 13 2014
Accepted:
October 13 2014
Citation
Naomi C. Mahaffy, Sarah Dickson, Raymond E. Cantwell, Kayla Lucier, Corinne J. Schuster-Wallace; Effects of physical disturbances on media and performance of household-scale slow sand (BioSand) filters. Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology-Aqua 1 May 2015; 64 (3): 250–259. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/aqua.2014.061
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