Impact of Gravity-Driven Membrane Filtration Water Treatment Systems on a Rural School in Indonesia

Improving access to safe drinking water in developing countries is still a challenge and Gravity-Driven Membrane (GDM) filtration systems may be a sustainable solution. Two rural schools in West Java Indonesia were studied, one as a control site and another having an installed GDM system. Chemical and microbiological water quality data were collected for an initial 3-month period at the GDM site and a final sampling at the study’s conclusion (6 months) at both sites. After the initial 3-month period, health surveys were conducted with students self-reporting incidences of diarrhea for 3 months at both school sites. An analysis of the chemical parameters indicated that both schools had good water quality. An average 2-log reduction of fecal indicator bacteria at the GDM site was observed, with the control site having numbers that exceeded the upper detection limits (>3.38 log CFU/100 mL). Student diarrhea incidence at the GDM site declined from 0.077 at the survey onset to 0.052 at the latter half of the survey period, while the control site had a diarrhea incidence of 0.077 throughout. The results indicate that GDM technology can serve as a practical water filtration technology, improving access to safe drinking water for rural populations.