Filtering Water in Bangladesh with the Sari

Female: The sari. Depicted in Hindu paintings as long ago as 3,000 years
BC, it's worn by millions of women around the world. But apart
from being a graceful and colorful garment, it also has life-saving
potential.

Microbiologist Prof Rita Colwell and a team of scientists from the
University of Maryland in the United States are traveling to
Matlab, 60kms south east of Dhaka. Also on board are scientists
from the International Center for Diahorreal Disease Research in
Bangladesh.

Matlab has one of the highest incidences of cholera in the country.
It's the location for a water filtration field trial run by American
microbiologists.

The 3-year trial hopes to show that systematic filtration of drinking
water will dramatically cut the incidence of cholera.

This is peak Cholera time in Bangladesh and here at the Cholera
hospital in Matlab, some new patients have just been admitted.

Prof Rita Colwell: In 1998, the number of cholera victims entering the hospital in
Dhaka were about a thousand per day which is a staggering
number. Particularly when you consider that 25 per cent of the
victims entered the hospital and 75 per cent are asymptomatic
which means that millions were affected.

Female: Dr. Anwar Huq, is also a microbiologist who's been working with
Prof Colwell for over 20 years. Together they're gathering
information about water quality and other data to validate their
trial.

The cholera bacterium occurs in plankton that blooms at the same
time of year when cholera epidemics are most acute. If they could
find a filtration method that eliminates this bacterium, they could
scale back this killer disease. The magic ingredient could be the
sari.

Dr Anwar Huq: Well we demonstrated a close association between planktonic
animals, copepods and vibriol cholery and being a Bangladeshi I
have seen, when I was young, people using sari to remove particles
like insects from sugar which is commonly used to make a local
drink.

Laboratory tests have shown that four folds or eight folds of sari
diffused 99 per cent of the bacteria present in water can be
removed.

Female: Professor Colwell and Dr Huq have come to see their field trial in
operation.

To filter water effectively you fold the sari between four and eight
times. The folded cloth is then wrapped over the pot and water
from the river can be collected. After collection the sari is removed
from the pot, rinsed and dried in the sun.

Dr Anwar Huq: This technique is successful and can be used in other parts of the
world and using any other material.

Prof Rita Colwell: Cholera is a disease that quite easily can be eliminated. Safe
drinking water, filtration and chlorination and the disease will
disappear.