349 Maasai children younger than 6 years old were randomised by alternate household to drink water either left in plastic bottles exposed to sunlight on the roof of the house or kept indoors (control). The trial was run in Maasai by Maasai community elders. Children drinking solar disinfected water had a significantly lower risk of severe diarrhoeal disease over 8705 two weekly follow up visits; two week period prevalence was 48.8% compared with 58.1% in controls, corresponding to an attributable fraction of 16.0%. While this reduction is modest, it was sustained over a year in free living children. It confirms solar disinfection as eVective in vivo as a free, low technology, point of consumption method of improving water quality. The continuing use of solar disinfection by the community underlines the value of community participation in research. (Arch Dis Child 1999;81:337-338)
We report simulations of the thermal effect of strong equatorial sunshine on water samples contaminated with high populations of fecal coliforms. Water samples, heavily contaminated with a wild-type strain of Escherichia coli (starting population ؍ 20 ؋ 10 5 CFU/ml), are heated to those temperatures recorded for 2-liter samples stored in transparent plastic bottles and exposed to full Kenyan sunshine (maximum water temperature, 55؇C). The samples are completely disinfected within 7 h, and no viable E. coli organisms are detected at either the end of the experiment or a further 12 h later, showing that no bacterial recovery has occurred. The feasibility of employing solar disinfection for highly turbid, fecally contaminated water is discussed.
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