Virus removal by low-cost ceramic membranes
Ten years after Doris van Halem’s graduation, the ceramic pot filter has become a major hygiene intervention tool. The system is of a brilliant simplicity: a ceramic pot with tiny holes filters larger micro-organisms, such as bacteria, from the water. The pots are now manufactured in factories around the world, using local materials. The only drawback is that viruses, which account for various water-borne diseases, such as hepatitis, are not removed. But fortunately Van Halem discovered something else as well all those years ago.