Effectiveness of Point-of-use Water Treatment Technologies to Prevent Stunting Among Children in South Africa

"A silver-impregnated ceramic disk used for drinking water treatment that was developed by engineers at the University of Virginia. When the ceramic disk is placed in a household water storage container, silver diffuses through the porous ceramic into the water at a release rate that is effective for continual disinfection of waterborne pathogens while remaining below the silver drinking water standard. The disk is effective for daily treatment of 10 to 15 liters for at least six months.~This intervention was removed from the study in July 2017 (approximately at 1 year of follow-up)."

"Silver-impregnated ceramic water filter are well-developed, tested, and widely-used devices. In addition to mechanically removing pathogens, the filter is treated with silver to reduce live pathogens that pass through the filter and to provide residual disinfectant to reduce risk of recontamination after treatment.~This intervention was replaced with ceramic filters without silver in Dec 2017 (approximately at 1.5 years of follow-up)."

The safe-storage water containers used in this study are plastic buckets with a spigot, purchased locally.