Treating water once is easy. Keeping the household’s water safe from the tap or the borehole to the cup, every day, is where it is won or lost. Recontamination in the house is as common as dirty water at the source.
The chain, from collection to cup
- Collect in a container washed with soap, with a lid.
- Treat boiling, chlorine or a proper filter. Cloudy water settles or strains first.
- Store covered, narrow neck or tap, off the ground, out of the sun.
- Serve by pouring. No hands, no shared dipping cup.
The habits that break it
- A shared cup left sitting in the water.
- Topping up treated water with untreated water in the same container.
- Leaving the container open "so it cools".
- Washing the container with the same untreated water it will hold.
Water for a baby
Water used to mix formula must be boiled, not just filtered, and used within a few hours. A baby under six months who is exclusively breastfed needs no water at all, even in the heat: breast milk is water.
Rainwater and wells
- Rainwater: let the first few minutes of a downpour run to waste, it carries whatever was on the roof. Then collect, and still treat.
- A well or borehole: keep latrines and animals well away and downhill, keep the surround built up so runoff cannot flow back in, and cover it.
- After a flood, treat everything, including from a source that was safe before.
Cost, honestly
Chlorine is the cheapest per litre and needs buying. Boiling needs fuel, which in many households is the real cost. Solar disinfection costs nothing but needs sun, clear water and patience. Pick the one you will keep doing; a method used every day beats a better method used sometimes.
