Managing water in the home: accelerated health gains from improved water supply
Summary tables
Table 21. Comparison of Candidate Technologies to Pre-treat Turbid Household Water
| Criterion | Technologies | |||
| Settling; plain sedimentation | Fiber, cloth or membrane filter | Granular media filters | Slow sand filter | |
| Effected by particle size | Yes, only settable particles removed | Yes, depends on pore size of filter; micron-submicron preferred | Somewhat; depends of medium and design; 50-99% turbidity removal possible | Somewhat; large particles reduce filter runs (remove by roughing filters or settling) |
| Availability of equipment and/or materials | Readily available vessels | High for local materials such as fabric or paper filters; low for membranes | High for bucket filters and local media; Medium for drum or barrel filters or cisterns; Low for more advanced filter designs | Medium if construction materials and filter sand available |
| Skill; ease of use | Low; very easy | Low, easy | Low for buckets; medium for drum, barrel or cistern filters | Medium; requires training to operate filter and monitor |
| Maintenance requirements | Low; clean settling vessel | Low for disposable filters; moderate to high for reusable filters and filter housings | Low for buckets; medium for barrel, drum & cistern filters; all require media cleaning | Medium; requires periodic cleaning and replacement of upper sand layer |
| Applicability to water volumes of individual households | Yes | Yes | Yes for buckets; possibly for some drum, barrel and cistern filters | Possible but unlikely; most are too large for water needs of individual family households |
| Cost | Low | Low for local filters; high for imported filters | Low if filter media and constriction materials are local | Low if local media and construction materials available |
| Acceptance | High | High for some | High, probably | Moderate, probably* |
| Sustainability | High | High for some | High, probably | Moderate, probably* |
*Slow sand filters are often less effective, accepted and sustainable in field practice at the household level than possible in principle.