The disease ran rampant, and continues to run rampant across Haiti because the country’s sanitation system, or more accurately because of its LACK of a decent sanitation system. Without a way to properly process (disinfect/sanitize) human waste, the vessel by which cholera and many other diseases spread, that waste can easily find its way into water supplies where it has the opportunity to infect many more people.

Sounds nasty, but that grim story has existed as a harsh reality for the residents of Haiti and other areas we in the United States and other ‘Western’ countries have labeled as ‘Third World’.

The disease was originally endemic to the Indian subcontinent, particularly around the Ganges river. Trade routes by land and sea helped spread it to Russia, then to western Europe, then America during the Irish immigration period. Cholera is no longer considered a pressing health threat in Europe and North America due to filtering and chlorination of water supplies, but still heavily affects developing countries. ( source )

Stopping the spread of cholera and other diseases

Several people have come forward and blamed the Haitian government and a number of emergency relief agencies for not having enough medicines and vaccines to properly treat those who have already contracted chlorera. We think those people’s words have some merit, but not much.

The real problem lies with Haiti’s inferior sanitation and clean water distribution system. The disease normally spreads through contaminated drinking water so… instead of treating the problem after-the-fact, action needs to get taken on the front end where initial contamination occurs — and that means stopping the flow of infection waste into the water supply.

Advanced water purification and sewage systems mean the developed world no longer faces a major threat from cholera. The disposal and sterilisation of anything that may be infected is an important way of stopping its spread. ( source )

We do not have all the answers

Now before anyone gets on their high horse and asks, “Well do you know how to stop the flow of infectious waste into the Third World’s water supply?” No… No, we do not. We do know, however, that the answer lies in clean water because fewer people getting infected will, in the end, mean fewer people having the ability to spread the disease.

Since digging up all of Haiti or any other Third World country and installing proper sanitation systems would cost far more than anyone would want to pay, we suspect the solution will have to come from making safe, clean drinking water available to the masses.

Simplicity… a beautiful thing

In a country like Haiti where power lines may or may not reach many areas and the power may or may not always flow through the lines if they do exist, obviously more complex, powered water purification systems such as ultraviolet disinfection (which require power) could prove useless at the times when people might need them most.

About a month ago we talked about a series of gravity feed filters made by Doulton that use special ceramic filters to remove/reduce levels of potentially harmful Cysts (i.e. Cryptosporidium, Giardia, etc.), Particulates (i.e. Rust & Sediment Creating Turbidity), and Bacteria (i.e. E. Cholera, E. Coli, Typhoid, Shigella, Klebsiella Terrigena, etc.).

Today we’d like to offer a different gravity ceramic filter system for your consideration. This one, the Katadyn Ceradyn Drip Water Filter System uses three Katadyn ceramic depth filters remove bacteria, cysts, algae, protozoa, sediment, dirt, spores, some viruses, and other disease causing agents… down to the 0.2 micron level.

Made from BPA-free plastic and capable of producing roughly 1 gallon of filtered water per hour, Katadyn claims each Katadyn Ceradyn Drip Water Filter System has a life expectancy of 40,000 gallons.

What does that mean in the real world? Quite simply, it means that a household or village could set up a Katadyn Ceradyn Drip Water Filter System and continually feed it source water for a period of roughly 4 1/2 years and get one gallon of vastly improved drinking water each and every hour during that time.

Within that time period the individual three advanced Katadyn ceramic depth filters (20743) in the Katadyn Ceradyn Drip Water Filter System will need replacing every 13,000 gallons. But still… If used non-stop, that equals more than 500 days of continuous clean water production without need to change a filter!

Getting to the point of this posting, though, the first testing of waterfalls built at the Ground Zero site has taken place and from the article said, all went well. Granted they didn’t test for water quality — and we hope they WILL test for water quality and have systems in place to PROTECT water quality in the fountains — but they did test for noise levels, splash and foam generation.

No one likes a foamy fountain. No one. It looks… Unsafe.

Read the article about Waterfall Testing at Ground Zero and find out for yourself how well the initial testing went — or you can get the gist of things from the brief quote to follow.

There has been a rainbow this week at ground zero.

In fact, there have been many rainbows — faint and evanescent — as the wind shaped the beaded curtains of water falling into the north pool of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum; the pool that marks the spot where 1 World Trade Center once stood.

Water.

Almost a decade after the architect Michael Arad imagined memorializing the lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001, with two voids in the Hudson River — a vision transformed over time into two enormous sunken pools in a tree-filled plaza — water has begun to fall into the first pool. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is building the memorial, started the test on Tuesday.

What was most striking on first impression was that the water did not fall in sheets or foamy torrents. This is no Niagara. Rather, because its flow is separated at the top by comblike weirs, the water falls in a striated pattern, each drop sparkling distinctly as it falls 30 feet into the pool.

“The way the wind plays with the water, it makes it feel living,” said Joseph C. Daniels, the president and chief executive of the memorial and museum, as he looked over the expanse. ( source )

It shocked us a bit that we did not see much in that article about water quality testing — probably because they figure no one cares about water quality testing.

Not true! Some of us DO care a great deal about water testing and in the case of fountains, well, we believe we have good reason to care: Serious life-threatening diseases can transmit through the water running through a fountain.

There is a need for good water quality in contemporary fountains, regardless of their avowed intended use. Regardless of the fact that some fountains are designed and built not as bathing fountains, but are rather used simply as architectural decor, people will often drink from, bathe or wash their hands in any fountain. Additionally, fountain spray can contain legionella bacteria and has been linked to legionnaires’ disease outbreaks. Therefore, minimum water quality standards are necessary, regardless of intended use. Guidelines have been developed for control of legionella in ornamental fountains.

…

In July 1997, an outbreak of cryptosporidiosis was connected to an ornamental fountain at the Minnesota Zoo, which did not have proper filtration and water treatment. Children played in fountains and swallowed water, and spurted the water out of their mouths to mimic the way nozzles in the fountain spurted the water. ( source )

So the next time you think it a good idea to dip your face in a fountain to cool off, think about this article because if the builder of the fountain didn’t incorporate a filtration system and/or disinfecting regimen into the fountain’s design and implementation, well, you might find yourself getting a face full of unpleasant contaminants that ya’ really don’t want!

Ultraviolet light disrupts the DNA structure of bacteria and other living organisms (aka: organic contaminants) sometimes found in drinking water. Cooler temperatures in water storage tanks contained in water coolers can create ideal conditions for biofilms and other types of ‘slime’ to build up and reproduce — especially since the water also contains no sort of disinfectant or sanitizing agent (i.e. chlorine).

UV sanitation stops biological contaminants from reproducing if present in drinking water. Granted nothing SHOULD have had a chance to get into the ‘guts’ of your water cooler in the first place, but if it did, the fact that the crystal clear, pristine water you expect that machine to produce contains nothing to prevent a colony of bacteria from breeding makes inside your water cooler a great place to live, breed and raise a family.

UV water sterilizers for home use?

The simplest UV systems for home use typically function as inline water filters. As an example, Crystal Quest manufacturers an easy-to-install home uv water sterilizer available in three sizes, each with a different flow rating: 6, 8 and 12 gallons per minute.

Many people choose to add an ultraviolet water sterilizer to existing whole house water filter systems or any other filtration system where bacteria could possibly exist.

A good number of folks with well water also choose to install a UV sterilizer system in their homes. After all… well water does come from an unfiltered, untreated source that could very easily become with bacteria.

Other places where a UV sterilizer would work well?

The hard glass germicidal lamps in UV sterilizer systems provide a 99.99% reduction of bacteria, virus and protozoa. They accomplish that feat without the use of potentially harmful chemicals. Environments such as health care facilities (i.e. doctor offices, hospitals, dental offices, etc.) and residences with small children, elderly or immunocompromised individuals can also definitely benefit from the use of UV sterilization on their water supply.

NSF/ANSI Standard 42: Drinking water filtration systems that are certified to this standard remove chlorine and sediment/particles from water for the purpose of improving its look, smell and taste. The design of these filter do NOT lend themselves to the removal or reduction of health-related contaminants.

NSF/ANSI Standard 44: Water treatment systems certified to this standard typically function as cation exchange water softeners designed to reduce or eliminate water hardness (i.e. calcium and/or magnesium). Water filters designed to remove barium and radium may also certify to this standard.

NSF/ANSI Standard 53: Water purifiers certifying to this standard have designs that remove health-related contaminants such as waterborne organisms and industrial chemicals. Cryptosporidium, giardia, volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether) and trihalomethane compounds (THMs) fit into one of those categories or the other.

NSF/ANSI Standard 55: Devices rated to this standard function as point of use (POU) or point of entry (POE) ultraviolet microbiological water treatment systems. These water treatment systems feature designs which disinfect microorganisms (such as bacteria and viruses) potentially present in water.

NSF/ANSI Standard 58: Typically one will find reverse osmosis water systems (RO) certified to this standard. Devices in this category will normally have the ability to fully remove organic contaminants, but may only partially remove inorganic compounds and heavy metals.

NSF/ANSI Standard 62: Certified to this standard one will typically find water distillers. The process of distillation removes a wider range of drinking water contaminants than all other methods of drinking water purification. Arsenic, mercury and bacteria all get eliminated through the use of water distillation systems.

NSF/ANSI Standard 177: Water filtration units certified to this standard function as shower head filters designed to remove chlorine from water.