Club Service Projects - BioSand Filters

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BioSand Filters

Our Club has donated close to 500 BioSand Filters, which are placed into homes in the developing world to provide a family of up to seven people with clean water for ten years.  The filters come complete with all the materials to convert dirty water into potable water that is used for drinking and cooking.

The graphic shows a concrete enclosure, but otherwise this is the same as our plastic ones.

Rotary club members have helped install tens of thousands of biosand filters in the Dominican Republic through the Rotarian-led Children’s Safe Water Alliance, reaching an estimated 150,000 people in over 300 communities. For ten years, more than 200 clubs in 18 districts in Canada, the Dominican Republic, the United States, and other Caribbean countries have supported the effort, as has The Rotary Foundation, with 30 Matching Grants. In part because of the groundwork that’s already been laid, the Dominican Republic was chosen as one of three pilot countries for the new International H2O Collaboration, a worldwide alliance of Rotary International, The Rotary Foundation, and USAID.

More than 3.5 million people die from water-related diseases each year, and more than 40 percent of those deaths are due to diarrhea (UNICEF names diarrhea as the second-leading childhood killer). The average child in a developing country gets diarrhea three or more times a year, leading to four billion cases annually. For those who survive the dehydration, diarrhea gets in the way of nutrient absorption, which can lead to malnutrition, stunt growth and development, and reduce resistance to other infections that a child might encounter. Unsafe water – often contaminated by untreated wastewater – is a source of other infectious diseases too, such as hepatitis, typhoid, guinea worm, and cholera.

Biosand filters, which cost as little as US$100, reduce waterborne pathogens by more than 90 percent. With no moving parts or required maintenance, all the user has to do is pour water in. Layers of sand and gravel trap parasites, and beneficial bacteria growing on the sand kill micro-organisms.