Many news technologies have been developed to free water of all contamination but scientists question how effective they are in freeing water from arsenic
Arsenic is known to be the world's greatest environmental hazard, threatening the lives of several hundred million people. As it is colorless and odorless, people don't notice this contamination in water, which can be very toxic. The availability of safe, clean drinking water has been the focal point of many studies and technologies have been developed to free water from arsenic contamination. However, there have been no studies conducted on how effective these technologies are and how they work in making water safer to drink.
Hence, Researchers from the University of Exeter Medical School (supported by the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care in the South West Peninsula (NIHR PenCLAHRC) took it upon themselves to compare eight popular technologies claiming to free water of arsenic contamination. They found that, most of them were of poor quality and had data missing about their effectiveness. Only two among the 8 were found to be of superior quality and effective.
"Combining the qualitative results it became clear that a major problem was the reluctance of the user. Many people in affected regions, even if aware of the problems with arsenic, believe that they will not be affected, or find the technologies too difficult to use and maintain," Dr Mark Pearson, who led this study, explained. "It is imperative that more data is made available for decision makers to choose the most appropriate and effective technology for ensuring clean safe water. For any technology to be successful it also needs to take into account how acceptable the technology is to users, how people perceive the problem, the role of women in society and how to instill a sense of ownership into the community."
