Kathmandu, August 4:

Centre for Socio-Economic Development (CSED) launched drinking water purification tablets Aquatabs today. An Aquatabs tablet can purify five litres of water.

Medentech Ltd has been manufacturing these tablets for two decades and providing them to people across the world with a view to controlling water-borne diseases.

Aquatabs was launched in the country keeping in view the possibility of outbreaks of water-borne diseases.

These tablets are approved by the World Health Organisation. The tablets, made up of Sodium dichloroisocyanurate, help keep waterborne diseases, including cholera, typhoid, dysentery and diarrhoea, at bay by making water potable.

According to the Centre for Socio-Economic Development, the tablets have been proved effective in all water variations and have been proven in varying water PH levels, hardness and turbidity.

They have the self-life of five years, even in most challenging tropical conditions. The tablets are manufactured under GMP-approved conditions in the British Isles.

Dr Yasho Vardhan Pradhan, director, Child Health Division, said, “These tablets can help prevent deaths of adults and children due to waterborne diseases”.

He said consumption of safe drinking water prevents more than 90 per cent of water-borne diseases.

Suraj Kaki, project administrator of the Centre for Socio-Economic Development, said they plan to make the tablets available in 72 districts. Each tablet costs Rs 2.

“We are coordinating with humanitarian organisations to distribute the tablets free of cost to rural underprivileged and urban poor,” Karki said.