How to makewater safe for drinking and cooking?

Surface water and water from leaking pipes and open cisterns and wells may be contaminated with

cholera and other germs. This water should be carefully treated before drinking! There are different ways to treat surface water or other water sources that are likely to be contaminated. The quickest ways are boiling, bleaching, and adding lime or lemon. No matter how it is treated it should be settled and filtered first, or the treatment may not work.

1.Settle and filter the water.

• L et water settle until solids have settled out and water is more-or-less clear.

• Pour water through a filter made of clean fabric or a sand and charcoal filter. To use a fabric filter: Fold clean sari cloth 4 times and stretch or tie it over the mouth of a clean water jar. Pour water slowly into the jar through the cloth. After using the cloth, wash it and leave it in the sun to dry, or disinfect the cloth with bleach to kill germs. Boil or add bleach. If you have no bleach, use lemon or lime.

2.Boil or add bleach. If you have no bleach, use lemon or lime.

Boiling

• Bring water to a rapid boil for at least 1 minute.

• Pour water into a clean container to cool.

Use of bleach

Because household bleach is the most common form of chlorine, this chart shows how to disinfect water with household bleach. Household bleach may have different amounts of chlorine. Most common are 3.5% and 5%. The easiest way to measure the amount of bleach needed is to first make a mother solution (about 1% chlorine) and then add this solution to the water you want to disinfect.

First prepare the mother solution:

1. Add 1 cup of bleach to a clean, empty beer bottle.

2. Fill the bottle with clean water.

3. Shake the bottle for 30 seconds.

4. Let it sit for 30 minutes. Your mother solution is ready.

Add these amounts of the mother solution to clear water and wait at least 30 minutes before drinking the water. If the water is cloudy, you need twice as much of the bleach solution.

Use of lime or lemon

(This method will not kill allgerms, but is safer than notreatment at all and can prevent many cases of cholera)

• Add the juice of 1 lime or lemon per liter of drinking water, to kill cholera germs.

• Pour water into a clean container.

3. Keep water containers clean.

• Make sure the water storage container stays

clean! Do not put dirty containers, hands or

anything else in the water container. Pour it off

into clean cups for use.

How to treat CHOLERA?

The most important treatment for cholera is

oral rehydration. Except in severe cases, antibiotics will not help at all. When a person has watery diarrhea or diarrhea and vomiting, do not wait for signs of dehydration. Act quickly.

Give lots of liquids to drink such as a thin cereal porridge or gruel, soup, water or rehydration drink.

Keep giving food. As soon as the sick person can eat, give frequent feedings of foods he likes. To babies, keep giving breast milk often — and before other drinks.

Rehydration drink helps to prevent or treat dehydration. It does not cure cholera or diarrhea, but may give enough time for the illness to go away by itself.

How to prevent Cholera?

Cholera can be prevented through careful sanitation, careful use and treatment of

water before drinking or cooking, and careful handling of food.

SANITATION

• Dispose of dead bodies far from water sources.Always wash carefully after handling.

• Build emergency sanitation facilities at least 30 meters from any water source. Ensure that people can wash carefully after using the toilet.

• Always wash hands after using the toilet.

• Always wash hands before cooking.

WATER

• Do not drink untreated water.

• Treat water using at least 2 methods: Filtering through fabric, sand or other material and boiling Filtering through fabric, sand or other material and adding lime or lemon Filtering through fabric, sand or other material and adding chlorine

• Keep water containers clean and do not put hands in drinking water.

FOOD

• Cook food thoroughly and eat it while it is hot. Fish and shellfish are a major cause of cholera: only eat them if they are well-cooked. • Do not mix cooked foods with raw foods like salads or relishes. • Exclude infected persons from handling food. • Wash vegetables and fruit in treated water before use, or peel them if there is no water. • Discourage the habit of several people eating together from a communal food container.

* Preparing an Emergency Pit Latrine

In an emergency, while a more permanent latrine is being built, a simple pit can be dug as a temporary solution for the disposal of human excreta. It should have a depth of at least 1/2 meter, and be at least 20 meters from a well or other source of drinking water. Where possible, the pit should be at least 6 meters from the nearest house. It should not be located uphill from the water source or dug in marshy soil. The bottom of the pit should never penetrate the groundwater table. After each use, a layer of soil should be laid down in the pit. In an area affected by cholera, the pit should also be coated each day with a layer of unslaked lime. For more information about other latrine designs, please see Sanitation and Cleanliness for a Healthy Environment.

How to identify cholera?

Cholera is a severe form of diarrhea caused by bacteria in water.

The symptoms of cholera are:

• Diarrhea “like rice water” in very large quantities

• Vomiting

• Leg cramps

• Weakness

Diarrhea and vomiting can lead very quickly to severe dehydration and shock. Without treatment, death can occur within hours.