ABSTRACT

This project involves designing and testing of an affordable household candlestick water filtration model for rural dwellers, using locally available materials. These are silt clay, sawdust and sharp sand mixed at three sets of ratios for cfficicnt micro pores reduction. The ratios are for filter A(I: 2:3), for filter B( 1 :2:4) and filter C(2: 2 ½ :5) respectively. The candlesticks are dried in an oven at temperature of 105C for 2 hours and then baked in a furnace at a temperature of 200'C for 7 hours. The baked candlestick filter was fixed to a galvanized stand. The measured parameters in both the filtered and raw water are PH, turbidity, sulphate, total dissolved solid (TDS) and bacteriological concentrations. The values recorded for the raw water are PH (7.0), Turbidity ( 10.0 NTU), Sulphate (0.0mg/L), Iron (0.10mg/L) total dissolved solids (TDS)(12.5mg/L), bacterial concentration values in total colifonn bacteria and total viable bacterial are (9.0CFU/mL) and (3.0CFU/ml) respectively. Also the values recorded for the filtered water for filter A, B and C are for PH (6.5, 6.5, 6.5) for TDS ( I 0.0MG/l, 9.5mg/L, 9.0MG/IL), for sulphate (O.mg/L, Omg/L, Omg/L), for Iron (0mg/L), 0mg/L, Omg/1, for turbidity (3.2NTU, 3.0, 2.9 NTU, Total Coliform bacteria and facael coliform bateria arc (2.5, 2.2. 2.0 CFU/ml) and (2.7, 2.3, 2.1 CFU/mL Respectively. The values recorded from the filtered water con formed with the World Health Organization / Federal Ministry of Environment (WHO/FMENV) standard with slight variation in faecal coliform bacterial recorded as 2.7, 2.3 and 2.1 NTU respectively). From the null hypothesis the coefficient of rank correlation values are - 1.69, - l .87 and -2.0 I for filters A, B, and C respectively and percent coefficient correlation are -169%, - 187% and -201%. This shows a negative correlation between the two water values. So there is great in similarity between the raw water , and the filtered water. The coefficient of correlation value varies between + J and -I, while correlation value falls within the standard range. We therefore accept Ha and reject Ho, stating that the two water samples are not correlated. The candle stick filter C has the highest efficiency of 70.0% for turbidity and total coliform bacteria and thus it is safe. readily affordable with less risk and so recommended for rural usage.