Reducing childhood diarrhea in the Peruvian Amazon: use of a low-cost intervention to scale up household water treatment

Diarrhea is the second leading cause of death among children worldwide. Treating water before it is consumed can reduce the diarrhea risk by 42%. In low-resource settings, boiling water is often the only method used, because many other effective household water treatment methods remain unfeasible due to cost, lack of availability and cultural barriers. This bold idea will test a low-cost and reusable water pasteurization indicator in the Peruvian Amazon, a region where childhood diarrhea is rampant and people rely on surface water for drinking. Pasteurizing water (at 65C) instead of boiling it (at 100C), will allow Amazonian families to economize on fuel, save time and reduce indoor fuel emissions, enabling the treatment of household drinking water and yielding immediate health gains. A business model will be developed to establish local production and scale-up of the indicators, with the participation of the regional Ministry of Health and other community organizations. This project is funded under a collaborative agreement between CONCYTEC (Peru’s National Council for Science, Technology and Technological Innovation) and Grand Challenges Canada (funded by the Government of Canada) to support Stars in Global Health innovators based in Peru.