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SODIS - solar water disinfection

Clean your water from pathogens.

Done in 6 hours
Skill level easy

You and your children can get very sick from contaminated water. The solar water disinfection (SODIS) is a simple way of disinfecting your drinking water by the sun. With this effective method you can clean water from pathogens that cause diarrhoea and other diseases. SODIS cannot clean water from chemicals!

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What you need

How you make it

Clean your plastic bottles

If possible, use detergent or bicarbonate of soda to clean the bottles.

Test the turbidity of your water

Fill your plastic bottle(s) full with water. When you look through the bottle neck from top to bottom, you should be able to clearly read the text on the paper underneath.

If you cannot read the text, the turbidity of the water is too high and you have to filter the water first. Use a sediment filter for this.

Put your water bottles on your roof and expose them to the sun

Make sure that the water bottles are not standing on the roof, but lying flat.

On sunny days, wait at least 6 hours - including noon hours. On cloudy days, wait 2 days. On days with continous rainfall this method does not work.

Now your water is ready to drink

If you do not drink the water directly, store it in the bottles.

References

The SODIS method was developed by EAWAG (The Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology). Find more information about it here.

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