February 8, 2010
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from the field: household BioSand filters in rural Cambodia.

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The charity: water team was in Cambodia this week with local partners Samaritan’s Purse Canada and Hagar Cambodia. Last year, we funded 1,900 BioSand filters serving 12,000 people and this week, we got to know the program and visited the families who benefited from the project.

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I got to photograph the charity: water projects in Cambodia this week, and am really excited about the work here. Most of the projects charity: water funds around the world deliver clean water at the community level. Deep and shallow wells, spring protections, rainwater catchment systems, etc.

In rural Cambodia, we’ve got a different approach. Water is abundant here, but rarely clean. We always look to find the most appropriate technology to solve water problems, and here we’ve found that’s the household BioSand filter (BSF) which can serve a family of up to 10 people.

Here’s how it works:

A big 175-pound concrete box holds fine sand, gravel and rock, and a biological layer of good bacteria is formed that eats 99% of the contaminants as dirty water is poured in the top of the unit. My favorite thing about this program is the personal ownership the families take in the project. The construction is done by family members, and they must also contribute $4 towards the cost.

It costs charity: water $60 to equip a family with a BSF, and we’re looking to grow our impact in 2010 by serving at least 5,000 Cambodian families. We’re finalizing the program details now, and you’ll be able to sponsor a BioSand filter for a family on charitywater.org by the end of the month.

– Scott Harrison

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  • http://www.iamsarahjoy.com Sj

    I love this!!!

  • Beijingship

    yeah, it is a nice system. However, how to do a backwash when biosand full enough ?

  • http://www-d.charitywater.org/blog/ charity: water

    Hi, Beijingship – 

    If the BSF becomes clogged, the user can just scrape the top layer off of it and start the process of creating a biological layer again. Learn more about the BSF in more recent posts here: http://www.charitywater.org/blog/category/countries/countries-cambodia/

    Thanks!

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    Fast sand filtering system is mainly used in combination with other drinking water cleansing methods. The main distinction from slow sand filtering system is the fact that biological filtering system is not part of the cleansing process in rapid filtering system. Fast filtering system is used widely to remove impurities and remnants of flocculants in most municipal drinking water treatment plants. 

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  • http://www.ctech-europe.com/polyclay-chemistry.html clay flocculant

    There should be an abundant water treatment plant in Cambodia to provide for their communities. It’s a basic need and the government know better than that.

    • http://www.facebook.com/alan.phelps Alan Felpzz

      Yes there should. However, Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia. Even some governments (many in Africa) are poor, and the leaders of these countries live in poverty. There is simply no money to fund for adequate and efficient water infrastructure. Even if the government understands this, there is a the likelihood of corruption and pocketing government money among politicians.

      Rural communities are especially disadvantaged, seeing that most of the proper infrastructure is usually only located in highly populated areas. It is rare (or entirely nonexistent), especially in countries like Cambodia, that the government will see rural communities as a priority to provide sufficient infrastructure. It is a real problem.

      Water treatment plants are not cheap. Even the United States struggles to fund for new technologies for retrofitting treatment plants. Treatment plants also account for about 8% of the total US electric bill every year. Plus additional costs for conveyance infrastructure, extraction infrastructure, and maintenance hurt the budget as well.