Multi-Stage Filtration: an innovative water treatment technology

Updated - Tuesday 09 December 2003

Gerardo Galvis, Jorge Latorre and Jan Teun Visscher (1998)

Introduces multi-stage filtration (MSF) as a sustainable technology that is in harmony with local conditions and available management capacity of most communities. The community can operate and maintain the system with a minimum of external support at an affordable cost to the users. It is a combination of coarse gravel pre-filtration and slow sand filtration (SSF) and can treat water with levels of contamination well above the levels that can be treated by SSF alone. Although experience with the technology is still new, it already has a good track record of sustainable performance in the communities in Colombia where it has been installed, and the experience is now being replicated in other projects, regions and countries.

Target audience: professionals, managers and design engineers involved in the water supply and sanitation sector, particularly those working in or for rural settlements and small and medium-sized municipalities.