The challenge
Across the PNG highlands, villages draw from sources contaminated with the bacteria that cause diarrheal disease — the kind that kills children fastest. Imported chlorine is expensive and unreliable; when the supply chain breaks, the disinfection stops and the disease returns.
An earlier attempt to treat the water here was not practical to sustain in the field. Rather than paper over that, we treated it as data: the highlands need a system with no single point of failure — one that keeps working when any one part is under strain.
Our solution
We are piloting a multi-barrier system that protects the water at three stages, so no single step has to be perfect:
1. Protect the source. Reduce contamination entering the creek upstream, before the water ever reaches the storage tank — the cheapest place to remove a problem is before it starts.
2. Filter at the point of use. A prefilter and an ultrafiltration (UF) membrane right before each spigot — UF physically removes bacteria and protozoa with no power or chemicals. This is the stage we are actively piloting.
3. Disinfect at collection. We are evaluating point-of-collection chlorination to add a final barrier and a protective residual for water carried and stored at home.
Clean Water Help brings the technical depth: source-water assessment, sizing and testing the UF stage, and evaluating whether and where chlorination adds enough protection to justify its cost and upkeep.
Who does what
We are force multipliers, not occupiers — the local partner leads and we supply the science, the design, and the funding.
- Assess source-water quality and contamination pathways
- Size, test, and pilot the ultrafiltration stage
- Evaluate point-of-collection chlorination
- Help fund the pilot and, once proven, the build-out
- Lead community relationships and site selection
- Install and test the pilot filters in the field
- Protect and maintain the source and storage tank
- Train local operators and steward each system
The team behind it
Volunteer scientists and engineers donating their expertise to this project — click anyone to see their work.
From the field
