SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation

SDG6 - Clean Water and Sanitation - Ensure access to water and sanitation for all. Please provide information on your activities towards this goal in the last year

Solar water disinfection (SODIS) buckets designed by Buckinghamshire New University and made by the Polytechnic University of Malawi are being used by more than 500 families in the Chikwawa region of Malawi, in south east Africa.The buckets kill harmful microbes in water and have been designed at Bucks. WATERSPOUTT is coordinated by researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons in Irelandand aims to reduce the number of people worldwide relying on unsafe drinking water.

The product s very simple to use, cheap to produce, and highly effective at solar water disinfection. The University is also part of a trial of of transparent plastic jerry cans for solar water disinfection in rural communities in Ethiopia.

SODIS is a household water treatment that uses sunlight to kill harmful microbes in water stored in transparent containers and is used by five million people in developing countries on a daily basis. However, 660 million people around the world remain without sustainable access to safe drinking water. WATERSPOUTT aims to increase the number of people who use SODIS by developing technologies that will allow larger volumes of water to be treated. Rather than having to use numerous standard two-litre bottles, using the current standard SODIS process, WATERSPOUTT technologies provide households with larger volumes of up to 20 litres of treated water per day, using just one container.

These technologies are designed in consultation with families, schools and clinics in Africa and are being piloted in Uganda, South. Africa, Ethiopia and Malawi. WATERSPOUTT technologies will have an estimated market of more than 102 million people in Africa, in addition to 50 million others in Asia, Europe and Latin America.SODIS. The WATERSPOUTT consortium was awarded €3.6 million (3.084 million) by the European Commission under theHorizon 2020 programme to provide affordable access to safe drinking water in remote and vulnerable communities throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and other resource-poor countries.

Clean air / water, sanitation and the public health risks of poor air and water quality and sanitation are explored in our Public Health degree programme as well as in respiratory care modules.