Brilio.net/en - In the world, 2.4 billion people dont have access to drinkable water. Diseases such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery are a huge problem in developing countries where every seconds a child dies of an illness related to the pollution of the water.
In order to solve that issue, Swiss company Verstergaard came up with a very original solution: a special kind of straw, a little bit bigger than the usual one we know, that purifies dirty water. The LifeStraw is indeed capable to transform any kind of water into drinkable water.
Image viaarizonahikersguide.com
The process is simple but has never had been put into the practice. It is a system of filter made out of hollows fibres, particularly efficient to purify any kind of water, removing the insalubrious germs.
The LifeStraw can remove 99.999 percent of water-born bacteria and other parasites, including E-coli, campylobacter, vibrio cholerae, psuedomonas aeruginosa, shigella, and salmonella. A quick and revolutionary invention which will allow the population that currently have no access to drinkable water to avoid massive contaminations.
Because it is a tool that can save lives, it has been named World changing idea by many magazines, including: Best Invention by Time Magazine, Invention of the Century, etc. And last Thursday, the LifeStraw nabbed the top honour in the fifth Saatchi & Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas.
For NGO, the main consumer of the product, the straw will cost around 2$, a very affordable price which aims of course to be distributed to as many people as possible. Recently, many associations launched helping calls to receive donations so they can massively buy straws, to further distribute them in the needing areas. Among the population in need, Bangladesh will be the priority since more than 30 million of people there drink polluted water every day.
Image viaeartheasy.com
The LifeStraw will also be sold in stores for the uses of particulars at a price of approximately 30$. The object can also be very useful during trekking or long hikes, seeing as water is an extremely heavy extra weight. The straw would allow to drink from any stream or rivers.
Some critics point out that the main issue about the LifeStraw is the fact that it doesnt filter everything yet, like some ultra-resistant parasites and heavy metals for example. Another challenge for Vestergaard, which already announced the launch of a straw filtering arsenic water in the future
(brl/red)
