On the outskirts of towns in the Thane district in Maharashtra, India, many residents drink and bathe in contaminated river water. Since they live in remote areas, it’s impractical for the government to install plumbing going to their homes.

Without a safe water source, many are forced to use nearby river and surface water which is contaminated with worms, parasites and bacteria. It causes dysentary, cholera, and diarrhea. In India diarrhea alone causes more than 1,600 deaths a day, many of which are children under 5.

So how do you create a long term sustainable water source for these residents when it’s impractical to install plumbing? We believe part of the solution involves BioSand filters.

BioSand Filters

A BioSand water filter is a simple concrete container. It houses several layers of sand which trap and eliminate sediments, pathogens and other impurities from the water. As the contaminated water travels through the layers of sand, it gets cleaned.

The filter is relatively inexpensive to construct, costs nothing to operate and is easy to maintain. Most importantly, they eliminate 90-95%† of impurities from the water.

Our non-profit partners at TMA, employ locals in India to create the filters and then distribute them to families in need.

Often when one family gets a filter, their neighbors see first hand how effective they are and they want one as well! As one villager put it "Filter is like round o'clock doctor who save us from waterborne disease."

When you buy one, two, or three bottles, a portion of sales will be combined with those from other customers to make one filter. When you buy four bottles a complete filter will be manufactured and donated on your behalf to a family who needs it.

*This figure based on the average number of liters a filter produces each day, over the time span of a year. The filters will
actually last many years! The figure also assumes that the profits from multiple bottles get combined to produce a filter.
† National Center For Environmental Research