Elemental iron (Fe0) for better drinking water in rural areas of developing countries

Abstract

Many of the reasons behind the anthropogenic contamination problems in rural environments of developing countries lie in changes in the traditional way of life and the ignorance on the toxic potential of introduced manufactured products. A generalization trend exists within the international community suggesting that water in developing countries is of poor quality. However, the water quality is rarely analytically determined. Existing potabilization solutions may be prohibitively expensive for the rural populations. Therefore, efficient and affordable technologies are still needed to ameliorate the water quality. In the recent two decades,elemental iron has shown the capacity to remove all possible contaminants (including viruses) from the groundwater. This paper presents a concept to scale down the conventional iron barrier technology to meet the requirements of small communities and households in rural environments worldwide.