Wadi, the solar water disinfection is trending in rural areas of Madhya Pradesh

Basanti, a month of two children from Ghutighat Village in Khandwa district in Madhya Pradesh was always concerned about the health and vigor of her family members. Often due to lack of awareness and low literacy often her children and husband got sick.

The Anganwadi and ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) worker often use to visit her house to inquire the health of the children and counsel her on using safe drinking water method.

She was also handed over with chlorine drops to disinfect the water which she used to fetch from the nearby open-well. Afraid of the ill-effects of the medicine she avoided using the chlorine drops and firewood collected from the forest was hardly enough for regular boiling of the water.

During one of the WADI awareness programme in Ghutighat village, Basanti got an opportunity to witness the benefits of WADI disinfection process.  WAter-DIsinfection is a device developed by the Austrian Social Enterprise Helioz to help disinfect water using the energy from Sun. This solar powered UV-measurement device helps to disinfect the water filled in the PET bottles exposed to the sun. A happy smiley face on the WADI display indicates that the water in PET plastic bottles is safe to drink. It is also been approved and supported by the World Health Organization (WHO).

This method of water disinfection does not require batteries, filters or chemicals for use, but only needs the power of the sun and a PET bottle.

WADI is approved and supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) for providing high protection against bacteria and protozoa, showing reasonable results with Viruses and being the only effective solution on the market against protozoa like Cryptosporidium. It has also been successfully tested by reknowed laboratories in Austria, El Salvador, Ethiopia, South Africa, Thailand and Uganda

Caritas India collaborated with the Austrian Social Enterprise Helioz, research, and development institution and launched the solar-powered UV-measurement device as an indicator for the process of solar water disinfection in the villages of Khalwa and Dharni block of Maharashtra predominated by the Korku tribes.

Basanti voluntarily came forward and requested Pushpa, WADI animator to provide the device for her family. She was provided with a device and taught the method of disinfection which found to be very easy. She also taught her daughter the method of setting up the device and the process of disinfection.

Her worries about the ill-health and frequent sickness due to contaminated water was over. “ab mujhe dar nhi lagta ki kue ka pani se bache bimar padenge, kyu ki mere pass WADI hai” (Now I don’t fear that my children will fall sick due to well water because I have WADI with me…) happily shares Basanti.