The United Nations has established a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of their global agenda to address various social, economic, and environmental challenges. The SDG 6 is centered around universal access to safe and affordable drinking water by 2030, with a focus on the 2.1 billion people that lack access to safely managed water globally. One of the primary issues with poor water quality is microbial contamination which can cause potential acute health hazards, e.g., gastrointestinal infections, waterborne diseases, respiratory infections, etc. To supply safe and potable drinking water, centralized treatment facilities typically remove pathogens through both physical and chemical methods. While such facilities are common in developed countries, centralized systems are costly and require extended construction periods, especially when considering distribution systems. For example, a new water distribution system in lower income countries is estimated to cost 64-268 USD•person -1 for 500-2000 households. Another estimation for the implementation of a piped water supply for a small town in Ghana is in the range of 10-14 USD•person -1 •yr -1 (national minimum wage is approximately $689 USD•yr -1 ). It is notable that these estimated costs are only for the distribution system and do not include cost for water treatment. These barriers make potable piped water out of reach for many developing countries or emerging economies where the need to disinfect water is urgent. As an alternative solution to centralized systems, water can be disinfected at the household level or point-of-use (POU), providing a potential pathway for immediate safe drinking water for off-the-grid communities. Numerous POU disinfection technologies are commercially available, ranging from conventional technologies (e.g., boiling and POU chlorination) to new technologies (e.g., ultraviolet (UV) disinfection systems). For example, solar water disinfection (SODIS) can be a relatively simple intervention for disinfection when properly utilized. A year-long study in Cameroon highlighted that SODIS provided up to a 42.5% reduction in the risk for diarrheal diseases in households that properly treated their water, but only 45.8% of all households effectively adhered to the recommended practices of SODIS. Ceramic water filters are another POU technology that can be produced with local materials and provide dual mechanisms to remove bacteria, i.e., the porous physical ceramic matrix filtration and silver nanoparticle antimicrobial coating. A randomized controlled field trial in Bolivia demonstrated the effectiveness of ceramic filters in meeting World Health Organization (WHO) drinking-water standards. While results obtained proved valuable in achieving compliance when faced with turbid challenge waters, additional research is needed. One aspect that requires attention is the maintenance of ceramic filters, as an agent-based model has shown that neglecting it can hinder their long-term sustainability, despite their relative ease of use. Overall, sustained adoption of individual POU technologies can vary between communities due to contextual and end-user factors, but inadequate clarity on how decision makers and stakeholders can navigate the different POU technologies under different contexts can limit implementation and sustained adoption. Therefore, the sustainability of numerous POU technologies needs to be simultaneously assessed while considering context-specific factors enabling engineers, agencies, and researchers to make informed decisions and select the most suitable treatment technology for a specific community.