Rural Drinking Water Safety Project in China

"Finding sustainable solutions for the problem of rural drinking water safety in China poses huge challenges for the local government, rural residents and technology providers," said Mike Kuchenbrod, president of ITT's China and India operations. "To address the issue, ITT designed two different solutions for Qing County and Zhaojiaopu Village, each according to the distinctive features of the water environment and the specific needs of local residents. We hope that these two successful pilot models can be promoted to more rural areas of China and offer useful experience for future rural drinking water safety projects in many developing regions of the world."

According to survey data, 300 million of China's rural residents drink water that falls below standards. Residents in Qing County rely on wells that have been in use for more than 20 years. Because of the local land composition, seawater has gradually infiltrated the wells leading to higher fluoride content in the water.

The ITT project was conceived in 2005, with the company and the China Ministry of Water Resources signing a cooperation agreement in April 2008. Having analysed raw water quality, residents' needs and existing equipment, ITT employed technologies such as multiple agent filtration and ultraviolet sterilization to purify the well water and produce water that surpasses National Drinking Water Standards in a scalable form that is also energy- and resource-efficient.