Abstract

TREATMENT OF DRINKING WATER IN RURAL AREAS BY SOLAR DISINFECTION METHOD

*Dr.Ch. Lalitha and V.Anitha Devi

ABSTRACT

People living in urban areas are benefited to have drinking water at their door steps whereas rural people suffer for drinking water. The water resources available for them at nearby areas are used for common works. That water not fit for drinking. To make it potable they have to boil the water or add chlorine to disinfect the contaminants. But boiling requires fuel for which they also suffer and chlorination require tablets or solution for which the supply is inadequate in those areas. So the microbial load in the water can be reduced by SODIS (Solar disinfection ) method and make it potable. In this work, water samples from various rural water resources (also used by the people for drinking) were tested before and after SODIS method. The decrease in the microbial load was observed.

Keywords: Drinking water, chlorination, solar disinfection, potable, microbial load.