Having proven the theory, the next step would be to launch a training and education programme, so that village potters start making the filters and local people recognise the benefits of using them.
However, the resources necessary to launch such a programme have so far proved impossible to obtain.
Dr Sallis said development agencies are swamped with applications for support and tend to select projects with economic development potential, for example a product which local craftspeople can make and sell for a profit.
'It is very difficult for us to demonstrate that local people could make a profit from our water filters,' he said. 'To be sustainable, we need to spread knowledge and educate people. This would involve local potters showing each other how to make the filters, which is contrary to the commercial principle of keeping your methods secret from your competitors.'
In May 2006, the project reached the last 125 out of 2,500 applications for a grant award from the World Bank but in the end just failed to get funding .
Dr Sallis said: ''Funds are available for research and for the distribution of finished products but unfortunately we fall in a no-man's land between the two.'
'Ceramic water filters offer great potential for reducing the pathogen intake by people with low quality drinking water, and are therefore one of the most promising options to address United Nations Millennium Development Goal targets for reducing infant mortality.'
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Contact: Dr Paul Sallis
p.j.sallis@ncl.ac.uk
01-912-225-735
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
11-Sep-2006