A Simplified and Affordable Arsenic Filter to Prevent Arsenic Poisoning: Lab-Scale Study and Pilot Experiment

Abstract

Access to clean and potable water is an inextricable fundamental human right. However, the contamination of groundwater with toxic arsenic has emerged as one of the global issues that is preventing millions of people from accessing their fundamental rights and healthy livelihood. Over the years, progressive effort has been made to eradicate this problem, but there are significant challenges that still remain to be addressed. Keeping the research gaps in mind, our team has developed a simplified and affordable arsenic filter (SAAF) to prevent arsenic poisoning, which has been successfully implemented in the field in the last two years (Jharkhand, India). The filtering media used in the system consist of globally available and naturally occurring iron ore fines and manganese ore as arsenic removal agents along with silverimpregnated charcoal. The developed purifier SAAF is a household gravity-based water filter that can deliver potable water at a flow rate of 10−12 L/h from highly arseniccontaminated (1−1.5 mg L −1 ) and iron-contaminated (8−10 mg L −1 ) groundwater. The low cost, simplified design, adoptable setup, promising arsenic and iron removal performance, and extended lifespan (4−5 years) of the filter demonstrate its commercial possibility and implementation potential as a front-line arsenic removal technology.