PRT combats water-borne illness in Afghan drinking water

Published Dec. 30, 2008
By 1st Lt Amber Balken
Zabul PRT public affairs

QALAT, Afghanistan -- Diarrhea is one of the most common diseases in Afghanistan. An illness that can easily be cured in the US, can cause severe sickness and even death here. The doctors and medics of Zabul Provincial Reconstruction team are working to mitigate the severity of this problem by teaching local medical providers to operate a water purification machine.

Five local medical providers learned how to run, clean and sustain a water purification machine. Each person got hands on training on water purification. The goal behind the training is to provide the doctors with the skill set to teach the local people of Zabul to purify their own water.

The purification machine is a hypo-chlorite generator that transforms salt water into a purification solution. The process takes about eight hours to complete. One hundred and fifty liters of water is taken from a well or river and 10 pounds of salt is added, the machine produces a solution that is added to river water to produce potable water.

This solution is made by the hospitals who will then distribute to the local families to purify well or river water.

For each tablespoon of solution, four gallons of water can be purified for drinking water. The purification solution will kill 99.9 percent of the bacteria that cause diarrhea and death. In Zabul, more than 50 percent of the sickness comes from diarrhea, purified water will reduce that to 25 percent.

"This is a very sustainable machine," said Air Force Dr. (Capt.) Bill Errico. "This process is easy, relatively inexpensive and something that each Afghan household can do to keep their family healthy."

The first of these machines was delivered to the hospital in Shajoy, and plans are in the works to provide three more machines throughout Zabul.