Here are quick summaries of just a few of IDRC’s many successful urban water-related projects.

Greywater Reuse: IDRC’s work on the reuse of “greywater” — water collected from laundry tubs, sinks, and showers, as opposed to “black water” from toilets — for household gardens in the West Bank and Gaza, Lebanon, and Jordan has had a substantial impact. The success of the initial pilot projects — water use was reduced by 15% and incomes increased an average of 10% as a result of water savings and the sale of surplus produce — led to the introduction of greywater reuse standards, new bylaws, and the installation of thousands of greywater filtering units in Jordan.

Mingoa Watershed: Members of the urban community of Yaoundé, Cameroon, in the watershed of the Mingoa River have improved water quality and health through the efforts of a community wastewater management team. The team comprises researchers from disciplines such as engineering, economics, pediatrics, biology, and sociology, and civil society representatives, local leaders, traditional healers, nurses, and students. Project researchers, supported by IDRC, the Swiss Centre for Scientific Research, and the United Nations Environment Programme, began by evaluating drinking water quality. They found high levels of fecal contamination in many of the community’s water sources. Health monitoring found infants aged 12 to 23 months to be the most vulnerable to and most affected by this contamination. The project team and the community built improved sanitation facilities, cleaned up the area surrounding a spring from which most households drew water, and distributed safe water containers to households.

Dakar, Senegal: A project in the rapidly growing city of Dakar is examining the technical and socio-economic feasibility of using an aquatic plant (water lettuce) to treat household wastewater for reuse in market gardens. In the community of Castor, water lettuce is thriving and the community is growing and selling peppers, corn, zucchini, okra, onions, and fruits, such as bananas, apples, and papayas. Community members, mostly women, finance, operate, and maintain the water lettuce plants and the fruit and vegetable plots.

Slow Sand Filter: In 1988, IDRC-supported research led to the development of a simple, low-cost filter that provides cheap, safe drinking water for communities in developing countries. At the heart of the device was a centuries-old design called the “slow sand filter,” in which wastewater is poured through a layer of sand, and a naturally forming biological layer purifies the water. The slow sand filter is now widely used in developing countries and may eventually gain popularity across North America.

Community Water Testing: In the Andean city of Ibarra, Ecuador, students from local schools uncovered evidence of bacterial contamination in the piped water system serving one of the city’s barrios (neighbourhoods). In the State of Morelos, Mexico, teachers and students worked closely with the Mexican Institute of Water Technology to monitor water quality in the Cuautla and Ayala rivers, which are used by local farmers for irrigation. In Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, elementary school students tested water drawn from household wells in their community and discovered that some of the wells were contaminated. These are just a few examples of the results of the AQUAtox 2000 project, launched by IDRC in 1998 and now managed by CEPIS-PAHO (Centro Panamericano de Ingeniería Sanitaria y Ciencias del Ambiente, Pan American Health Organisation). Students from more than 90 schools in Canada, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe have learned how to use simple and inexpensive water quality tests to detect chemical and microbial pollution in local water sources. Developed and validated by WaterTox — an international network of water quality laboratories funded by IDRC — the AQUAtox water quality bioassays make use of readily available materials and supplies, such as onion bulbs, lettuce seeds, and fresh water organisms. AQUAtox 2000 has strong municipal programs in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina,and Colombia, and plans to expand to Peru as well as other countries.

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