Safe Water Development

MEDRIX began by providing education to medical professionals in Vietnam.  During the course of this work a reoccurring theme emerged - lack of safe water severely impacts the quality of health throughout Southeast Asia; access to safe water would help solve many of the health problems.

SAFE WATER is defined as water free of:

• Disease-causing organisms, and
• Chemicals harming human health.

MEDRIX investigated how to increase access to safe water for people living in the rural areas of central Vietnam.  Robert Catherman, MEDRIX Director of Safe Water Development, partnered with several government agencies in developing some well drilling and water treatment projects.  As MEDRIX gained experience in the issues of water treatment, we realized MORE water was not needed to improve health, but BETTER QUALITY water was needed.  This is why MEDRIX is now focusing on efforts to improve the quality of existing water sources.

Ultraviolet Water Treatment

To improve water quality in rural Vietnam, MEDRIX has developed an Ultraviolet Water Treatment System.

MEDRIX has Three Goals for this UV Water Treatment System:

1. Simple but effective,
2. Affordable and
3. Buildable in-country by micro-enterprises.

To achieve these goals, MEDRIX divided the ultraviolet water treatment development program into several phases.

To learn about these phases, Click Here!

UV Water Treatment System Handbook

MEDRIX is committed to sharing what we have learned about using ultraviolet energy for water treatment.  We have published a handbook entitled, "Using Ultraviolet to Disinfect Household Drinking Water."  If you want more information about treating water with ultraviolet energy or if you want to know how to construct and operate a small ultraviolet water treatment system, please contact our office for a FREE copy of the handbook.  The handbook is currently available in English, Vietnamese, Spanish and Khmer.

Current Activities:

• Scale-up Project: Partnering with the Health Services Department in TT - Hue Province, Vietnam to install UV Water Treatment systems in all 150 health clinics in the province
• Installing 20 treatment systems in preschools located in a rural mountainous district in TT -Hue Province.  (funded by a grant from the Unilever Corporation)
• Monitoring the water quality produced by the installed systems
• Training and advising other organizations who are interested in building and installing the system in developing countries worldwide
• Working with US-based universities on advanced development of the system including a battery-powered version
• Pursuing official certification of our system in Vietnam

Project Proposal

If you want to partner with MEDRIX on a water project, please complete a Project Proposal by clicking on one of the documents below or contact the MEDRIX office.

Project Proposal as Word Document

Project Proposal as PDF Document