Solar Disinfection as a Water Treatment Technology
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Solar Disinfection as a Water Treatment Technology Javier Marugán1, Stefanos Giannakis2, Kevin G. McGuigan3 and Inmaculada Polo-López4 1 Department of Chemical and Environmental Technology, ESCET, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Móstoles, Madrid, Spain 2 Departamento de Ingeniería Civil: Hidráulica, Energía y Medio Ambiente, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain 3 Department of Physiology & Medical Physics, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Dublin 2, Ireland 4 Plataforma Solar de Almería – CIEMAT, Tabernas (Almería), Spain
Synonyms SODIS
Definition Solar disinfection, or SODIS, refers to the method of using sunlight to inactivate microbes in biologically contaminated water. The contaminated water is placed in transparent containers and is then exposed to strong sunlight for at least 6–8 h. At the end of this solar exposure, the microbes, which could otherwise cause waterborne diseases,
are inactivated and unable to cause illness. Solar disinfection is typically used in remote rural communities in low-income settings where there is no access to any other form of distributed water treatment such as chlorination, boiling, or filtration.
Introduction Access to safe drinking water is a problem for a large proportion of the global population but especially for those living in low- to mediumincome countries or in remote rural communities without access to municipally treated distributed water supply. Members of households in such situations often have no choice but to drink contaminated water and are at a high risk of contracting waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, gastroenteritis, and diarrhea. For most people who live in a high-income country, diarrhea is probably a little more than an embarrassing inconvenience. However, in low-income countries, diarrhea can be a serious and sometimes life-threatening disease especially for the very young, the very old, or people whose immune systems have been compromised by other preexisting medical conditions. To remove the risk of waterborne diseases, people sometimes treat their water to make it safe to drink. There is a wide range of treatment techniques that they can use such as chlorination, boiling, or filtration. However, all of these treatment techniques require an investment in either
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Clean Water and Sanitation, Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70061-8_125-1
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Solar Disinfection as a Water Treatment Technology
Solar Disinfection as a Water Treatment Technology, Fig. 1 Infographic demonstrating the basic technique of solar disinfection. (Source: Dr. Maria Boyle)
time or money, which is often more than many households can afford. It is under such circumstances that SODIS becomes a viable treatment to provide safe water for the entire family. The basic technique of SODIS is demonstrated in Fig. 1. Transparent containers are filled with whatever water that has been collected locally, and these are placed in direct sunligh
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