21 January 2010
People in Afghanistan are enjoying better health thanks to a successful Tearfund project to eliminate waterborne diseases.
Improvements to drinking water are slashing illness so much that in one area a local doctor says his case load has been vastly reduced.
The turnaround is down to the introduction of biosand water filters in Kapisa and Jawzjan provinces by Tearfund’s Disaster Management Team.
These filters are being used to treat drinking water by more than 3,400 households and are proving highly effective at removing bacteriological contamination.
They work by using layers of sand and gravel to filter water and can remove parasites such as cryptosporidium and giardia cysts which cause diarrhoea, particularly in young children.
Water work: Incidents of water-related illness are falling thanks to Tearfund projects in Afghanistan. Photo: Tearfund
Money saving
Like all good inventions, biosand filters are straightforward to use. After training by Tearfund staff, families are able to maintain them themselves.
Tearfund’s Zekarias Asfaw Shenkut says the filters are bringing more than health benefits to communities:
‘People are saying they are now able to save more money because they are spending less on medicines for water-related illnesses which are very common in Kapisa and Jawzjan,’ he said.
‘Recently a Mullah was saying that his kidney stone problem is becoming less painful and probably this is highly linked to the reduction of the turbidity of the water that he’s drinking from the filters.
‘The demand for filters and the benefit they are giving to households is increasing in all the project areas that Tearfund is introducing them.’