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Four household slow sand filters were made out of PVC and operated in continuous and intermittent flows, with and without using a float to control the maximum level of water inside the units. The efficiency was evaluated as a function of Escherichia coli reduction and turbidity in water from the study prepared with kaolinite and E. coli suspension. The correlation of the efficiencies with the following operational parameters was evaluated: operating time, time after maintenance, filtration rate and head loss divided by bed thickness. The filters were classified as intermittent with float (IFF), intermittent without float (IF), continuous with float (CFF) and continuous without float (CF). IFF, CFF and CF had a non-woven blanket installed on top of the media. The results indicated that no significant statistical differences were found in E. coli reduction and turbidity between IFF and IF, however the former had filter runs over 80 days and the latter almost a quarter of this value. CFF matured faster and had less turbidity remaining in relation to CF. When comparing IFF with CFF, the former presented lower turbidity remaining (0.89 ± 0.44 NTU versus 1.24 ± 0.91NTU), but a lower reduction of E. coli (1.40 ± 0.61 log versus 2.29 ± 0.74 log). The time after maintenance was the most important operational parameter when evaluating the efficiencies. The float helped to mature the filter more quickly in a continuous flow and, together with a non-woven blanket, extended the filter runs in the intermittent flow.

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Universalising actions aimed at water supply in rural communities and indigenous populations must focus on simple and low-cost technologies adapted to the local context. In this setting, this research studied the dynamic gravel filter (DGF) as a pre-treatment to household slow-sand filters (HSSFs), which is the first description of a household multistage filtration scale to treat drinking water. DGFs (with and without a non-woven blanket on top of the gravel layer) followed by HSSFs were tested. DGFs operated with a filtration rate of 3.21 m 3 .m -2 .d -1 and 2 HSSFs with 1.52 m 3 .m -2 .d -1 . Influent water contained kaolinite, humic acid and suspension of coliforms and protozoa. Physical-chemical parameters were evaluated, as well as Escherichia coli, Giardia spp. cysts and Cryptosporidium spp. oocyst reductions. Removal was low (up to 6.6%) concerning true colour, total organic carbon and absorbance (λ=254nm). Nevertheless, HMSFs showed turbidity decrease above 60%, E. coli reduction up to 1.78 log, Giardia cysts and Cryptosporidium oocysts reductions up to 3.15 log and 2.24 log, respectively. The non-woven blanket was shown as an important physical barrier to remove solids, E. coli and protozoa.