Make water safe to Drink
Howbtconbmxnackbe a charcoal filter
This filter is easy to make and removes most germs from small amounts of water.
Materials: 2 metal or plastic buckets, a hammer and 1 or 2 large nails, a bucket of
coarse sand (not sea sand), a quarter bucket of wood charcoal
➊ Make holes in the bottom of 1 of the buckets. Wash the bucket. This is now the
filter bucket.
➋ Clean the sand by rinsing it in water and draining until the water that drains off
is clear.
➌ Crush charcoal into small pieces. Activated charcoal works best, but ordinary wood
charcoal will also work. Never use charcoal briquettes! They are poison!
➍ Put a layer of washed sand 5 cm deep into
the filter bucket and pour water over it.
Water should run out through the holes.
If no water runs out, make the holes
bigger. If sand runs out, the holes are
too large. If this happens, remove the
Filter bucket
sand, place a thin cloth over the holes,
and replace the sand.
➎ Place a layer of crushed charcoal
Open 10 cm
about 8 cm deep on top of the
sand. Now fill the bucket with
more sand, until the sand is 10 cm
below the top of the bucket.
Sand
8 cm charcoal
5 cm sand
➏ Place 2 sticks on top of the second
bucket and set the filter bucket
on these sticks. Pour clean water
through the filter bucket several
times until the water comes out
clear into the collecting bucket.
Now the filter is ready for use.
Sticks to hold
bucket
Clean collecting
bucket
➐ To use the filter, allow the water you collect to settle before pouring it through
the filter. Drinking water collects in the clean, bottom bucket. To be safest, after
filtering, disinfect the water (see pages 97 to 99.)
Because the germs that are filtered out will grow on the charcoal, it is important to
remove and clean the charcoal every few weeks if the filter is used daily, or any time
the filter has been unused for a few days.
95
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012