Innovative Solution

LifeStraw® Family

technical

LifeStraw® Family is a household water treatment (HWT) technology that can play a key role in the accelerated global scale-up of household water treatment and safe storage (HWTS).

LifeStraw® Family is a point-of-use microbiological water purifier intended for routine household use in low-income settings. It treats a minimum of 18,000 litres of drinking water—enough to last a family of five at least three years—without any repeat intervention after distribution.

LifeStraw® Family:

-  Removes:

•  minimum 99.9999% of all bacteria (>6 Log₁₀ reduction)
•  minimum 99.999% of all viruses (>5 Log₁₀ reduction)
•  minimum 99.99% of all protozoan parasites (>4 Log₁₀ reduction)
•  turbidity, by filtering particles of approximately 0.02 microns

 -  Complies with World Health Organization’s highest performance standard for household water treatment (HWT), referred to as “highly protective,” as well as the US Environmental Protection Agency 1987 Guide Standard and Protocol for Testing Microbiological Water Purifiers

 -  Ensures high flow rate: minimum 150mL/min (≈ 9L/hr)

 -  Provides high volume of purified water

 -  Does not leave any chemical taste or odour in purified water

 -  Requires no electrical power, batteries or replacement parts

 -  Requires no running water or piped-in water supply 

 -  Requires no lifetime indicator (product is functional until water can no longer pass through the filter)

 -  Has an easy-to-clean pre-filter and purification cartridge

 -  Uses raw materials which are US Food and Drug Administration compliant or equivalent

LifeStraw® Family is in use all over the world. And as an environmentally sustainable solution to replace boiling, LifeStraw® Family was distributed to 900,000 households in Kenya in May 2011. LifeStraw® Family has also been distributed in DRC and Ethiopia in projects targeting reduction of waterborne diseases in children under five. To bring safe drinking water to households in emergencies, LifeStraw® Family has been distributed to displaced persons in Pakistan and Haiti. And as part of programmes providing care for persons living with HIV/AIDS, LifeStraw® Family has been distributed in Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana,  Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

LifeStraw® Family was developed by Vestergaard Frandsen with inputs from leading experts on point-of-use water treatment technologies. Vestergaard Frandsen had previously worked with the Carter Center on guinea worm eradication programs. This successful collaboration encouraged Vestergaard Frandsen to further explore the problem of improving point-of-use water interventions for households in the developing world, and led to the invention of LifeStraw® personal (a portable personal water filtration device) and then LifeStraw® Family (a higher-volume household water purifier).

Vestergaard Frandsen is the main implementer of the Carbon for Water project, which has distributed 900,000 LifeStraw® Family filters to households in Kenya’s Western Province. Vestergaard Frandsen worked extensively with the Kenyan government and civil society to ensure appropriate distribution, education and training were deployed in support of this ambitious intervention. To date, the project has reported consistent usage among 85 percent of households. (this has been verified by independent third party audits). Similarly high levels of usage have been observed in studies from DRC and Zambia. The second phase of the Carbon for Water project will be implemented in Southeast Asia and Africa at a significantly higher scale. Notably, the World Health Organization has provided guidelines for evaluation of household water treatment and safe storage devices. LifeStraw® Family was evaluated at the University of Arizona with respect to these guidelines and was found to exceed the requirements for the “highly protective’” category which is projected to have the highest impact on risk reduction from waterborne diseases. Due to its turbidity reduction and microbiological performance, LifeStraw® Family is being widely implemented in programmes addressing health concerns around safe water. Should countries choose to adhere to the WHO guidelines for household water treatment and safe storage, LifeStraw® Family provides a solution meeting the most stringent requirements of the guidelines and can insure that vulnerable populations such as children and persons living with HIV are provided with the best protection against waterborne diseases.

Each year, 1.8 million children die from waterborne diseases. Treating water with filtration-based technologies at the point of use can reduce diarrhea by 63 percent (Clasen 2006). Persons living with HIV/AIDS are at heightened risk of contracting cryptosporidiosis, which is recognized as a global problem and the main cause of consistent and chronic diarrhea amongst this group (WHO 2011). Chlorine-based solutions have been widely distributed to this population however these technologies are not effective at removing cryptosporidium from contaminated water. There is a need for effective interventions to remove this pathogen to ensure this vulnerable group is provided with the best standard of care. LifeStraw® Family can remove cryptosporidium from contaminated water and exceed the requirements for removal of this pathogen as set by the 2011 WHO guidelines for evaluation of household water treatment and safe storage.

Recent studies by Clasen (2006) and Waddington (2009) have shown that point-of-source interventions increase access to water but have little or no impact on reducing diarrhea. This is partly due to high recontamination levels in households and contamination of water sources. Point-of-use water interventions such as LifeStraw® Family can potentially reduce diarrhea by up to 63 percent in households. Without addressing this problem countries cannot achieve Millennium Development Goal 4, which seeks to reduce child mortality by two-thirds . These interventions also add value to the goal of increasing access to safe drinking water Millennium Development Goal 7. Household water treatment interventions can be used to complement water supply projects with the additional benefit of ensuring water safety after collection. In settings with high prevalence of diarrhea, LifeStraw® Family has been estimated to be extremely cost effective as per the World Bank’s standard – USD 50 or less per disability adjusted life year averted. Purifying 1 litre of water with LifeStraw® Family costs about USD 0.001 per litre and in a household of five, the filter costs about USD 1.6 per person per year.

Usage can be monitored with simple household visits. Health impact can be monitored with a review of clinical records and/or other means such as reported incidence of diarrhea at the household level. Vestergaard Frandsen is working actively with leading research institutions to measure and assess beneficiary use and acceptance of LifeStraw® Family, and to determine how LifeStraw® Family use correlates to improved health outcomes, specifically diarrheal disease reduction in under-5s and people living with HIV/AIDS.

 Organizations working on improved water supply projects can incorporate LifeStraw® Family as a complementary tool to ensure that parents/guardians can protect children from waterborne diseases. The Kenya Carbon for Water project demonstrated that it was possible to distribute LifeStraw® Family filter to 900,000 households rapidly and still maintain a high level of usage and acceptance. (The targeted households did not have access to piped water.) This model can be replicated in other countries. For projects aiming to reduce child mortality, LifeStraw® Family can be distributed during yearly vaccination campaigns in developing countries around the world. Another possible distribution model is to provide LifeStraw® Family filters at antenatal clinics for pregnant women; this ensures that the filter will be used in households that have at least one child. For programmes targeting persons living with HIV/AIDS, LifeStraw® Family offers a long-lasting and highly effective solution for households and can simplify supply chains related to clean water supply and avoid the need for repeat purchases for users.

Education and training around LifeStraw® Family, as with all HWTS interventions, has proven to be critical to insure compliance with this intervention and for populations to maximize the potential health benefits.  LifeStraw® Family can be a high-impact component of any health intervention where water quality is at risk at the point of consumption.

Vestergaard Frandsen is actively working with a variety of global stakeholders and partners to increase LifeStraw® Family use in multiple contexts, including new Carbon for Water projects in Asia and Africa as well as expanded LifeStraw® Family integration into various donor-funded health projects around the world.

Tim Neville tim.neville@lifestraw.com