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Martin Currie _ Aqueum gravatar image
RedR

Could you possibly clarify what it is that you are trying to filter from the water, or give us an idea of the water source so we can try to guess what you are trying to filter?

In general, if an improved water source will become available shortly then I would imagine that disinfection is the main issue and you want to distribute single-use household water disinfection systems like chlorine tablets (Aquatabs, Oasis, etc) if the water is low turbidity, or something like PUR sachets which combine coagulation with filtration for more turbid water. Education on systems like SODIS is an alternative.

I am assuming here that you mean 'treat' when you say 'filter' (an analogy would be 'fix' and 'hammer' - a hammer is one tool used to fix things, filtration is one technique used to treat water), but if you really need filtration, you may want to consider something like LifeStraws - see this discussion.

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addition to cover sand/gravel/charcoal mentioned in title

Could you possibly clarify what it is that you are trying to filter from the water, or give us an idea of the water source so we can try to guess what you are trying to filter?

In general, if an improved water source will become available shortly then I would imagine that disinfection is the main issue and you want to distribute single-use household water disinfection systems like chlorine tablets (Aquatabs, Oasis, etc) if the water is low turbidity, or something like PUR sachets which combine coagulation with filtration for more turbid water. Education on systems like SODIS is an alternative.

I am assuming here that you mean 'treat' when you say 'filter' (an analogy would be 'fix' and 'hammer' - a hammer is one tool used to fix things, filtration is one technique used to treat water), but if you really need filtration, you may want to consider something like LifeStraws - see this discussion.

While the body of your question doesn't mention them, I have just seen sand, gravel and charcoal mentioned in the title... It is certainly possibly to construct biosand and other types of filter locally, but if an improved water source is on its way, I would suggest that the cost, complexity & risk may be prohibitive, and you may still need disinfection in any case - sand and carbon won't remove bacteria & viruses & can in some instances increase microbial contamination.