Somehow, I think the title of the article is a little overblown. I grew up in Central America, and having had Amoebic Dysentery twice as a child, I know something about bad water. :)
Part of the problem is getting the water clean, but another big part of the problem is getting it to the people that are using it. Growing up, I lived in a city of 1.5 million people that had a water treatment program. The problem was water delivery. We lived in a heavy seismic zone, and the water pipes were plastic and the sewage pipes were clay. So, there were a number of cracks in both, and seepage went from the sewage systems to the delivery systems. So, water treatment was needed at the kitchen faucet not at the village center.
Another issue is that people need to realize that the water makes them sick. In many rural villages, you don't really think about water making people sick. They just think that getting really bad cases of diarrhea is part of life, and they think that people just die young. They don't correlate bad water with dying. They really need education systems for that.
Also, systems are needed that are a lot cheaper than $1000-2000. In many countries people make about $1 a day. It's going to take a lot of people that realize that the water is making them sick before they buy something that expensive.
You're right that it will take a lot of education, but the point is that at $1000-$2000 range it is financially viable to add these to each village. If the average wage is $1 a day and a village has 100 people living in it, you just need to prevent 10 sick days per person (and I'm not even counting the people dying there) for the investment to pay-off. Apply some microlending to it and that's it.
Well I think the point is that it is small enough that you can place the purifier on the other end of the pipe (in the home) and so what contaminates the water on its way there isn't as much a problem. But then again like you said, even at $1000 it's more than an individual living there will afford. Maybe they will institute some sort of program where people can donate purifiers to villages?
Part of the problem is getting the water clean, but another big part of the problem is getting it to the people that are using it. Growing up, I lived in a city of 1.5 million people that had a water treatment program. The problem was water delivery. We lived in a heavy seismic zone, and the water pipes were plastic and the sewage pipes were clay. So, there were a number of cracks in both, and seepage went from the sewage systems to the delivery systems. So, water treatment was needed at the kitchen faucet not at the village center.
Another issue is that people need to realize that the water makes them sick. In many rural villages, you don't really think about water making people sick. They just think that getting really bad cases of diarrhea is part of life, and they think that people just die young. They don't correlate bad water with dying. They really need education systems for that.
Also, systems are needed that are a lot cheaper than $1000-2000. In many countries people make about $1 a day. It's going to take a lot of people that realize that the water is making them sick before they buy something that expensive.