Household Water Treatment and Safe Water Storage

In much of the world, community water systems do not exist. Approximately 884 million people do not have access to an improved drinking water source* (1).

In areas where access to safe water, appropriate wastewater management, and adequate sewer systems is not feasible, certain programs, such as CDC's Safe Water System, can empower people to improve and protect the quality of their drinking water through simple, inexpensive technologies to treat and safely store water in their homes. The intervention consists of these steps:

• Point-of-use treatment of contaminated water
• Safe water storage
• Improved hygiene
• Behavior change techniques

More information on household water treatment is available from CDC at CDC's Safe Water System (SWS) and from the World Health Organization (WHO) at Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage.

For smaller community-based organizations, technical information on developing household water treatment and safe water storage programs can be found online within the Bibliography of Point-of-Use Water Disinfection. Also available online is the document Safe Water for the Community: A Guide for Establishing a Community-Based Safe Water System Program (PDF, 660 kb, 62 pages); this guide can also be obtained in hard-copy with a CD by sending an email to safewater@cdc.gov.

* An improved water source is defined as water that is supplied through a household connection, public standpipe, borehole well, protected dug well, protected spring, or rainwater collection.

1. World Health Organization and UNICEF. Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation – Special Focus on Sanitation. Available at http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/monitoring/jmp2008/en/index.html.

• Please note: Some of these publications are available for download only as *.pdf files. These files require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed. Please review the information on downloading and using Acrobat Reader software.