Household Water Treatment: Solar Disinfection, 2011. CDC.
Solar disinfection (SODIS) was developed in the 1980’s to inexpensively disinfect water used for oral rehydration solutions. In 1991, the Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology began to investigate and implement SODIS as an household water treatment option to prevent diarrhea in developing countries. Users of SODIS fill 0.3-2.0 liter plastic soda bottles with low-turbidity water, shake them to oxygenate, and place the bottles on a roof or rack for 6 hours (if sunny) or 2 days (if cloudy). The combined effects of UV-induced DNA alteration, thermal inactivation, and photo-oxidative destruction inactivate disease-causing organisms.
