Socially-Minded Entrepreneurs Work to Help Conquer Water-Related Disease

With more than one billion people worldwide living today without access to safe drinking water, several socially-minded entrepreneurs are leveraging their knowledge of business, science and technology to help conquer water-related diseases through modern water purification systems. As with recent advances in malaria prevention, the ability to save the 6,000 people who die each day of typhoid, cholera, dysentery and other waterborne diseases is within our reach.

Whether originating from a lake, river or well, drinking water in developing countries is often infected with microorganisms introduced through pollution or poor sanitation. By removing the dangerous contaminants and parasites through water purification treatments, water can be made safe for human consumption and dramatically lessen the chance of illness.

While water purification technologies have been advancing steadily over the years, two recent breakthroughs -- the LifeStraw and the Slingshot -- have sparked hope that a solution to water-related disease is eminent. Rated by Time magazine as the Best Invention of 2005, the LifeStraw is a personal, portable water purifier developed by Danish manufacturer Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen. Using a series of mechanical screens, carbon filters and resin beads fitted into a nine-inch tube, the LifeStraw is rated for 700 liters of water -- approximately enough water for one person for one year. Halfway around the world, the Slingshot -- a super-efficient, industrial strength vapor compression distiller -- is being engineered in Manchester, New Hampshire by DEKA founder (and Segway creator) Dean Kamen. And unlike the personal-use LifeStraw, the Slingshot can purify approximately 1,000 liters of water per day using a washing-machine-sized distiller.

However, point-of-consumption and point-of-source water purification are not the only ways in which science and technology can -- and must -- help achieve the United Nations' Millennium Development Goal to halve the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. Developing countries must also have the ability to collect and distribute clean drinking water to their people, and through improved methods of rainwater harvesting, groundwater extraction and water transportation, progress is being made in these areas as well.

Although both products present great promise to completely conquer water-related diseases, at this time, neither the LifeStraw nor the Slingshot are ready for mass production and distribution. And combined together with other engineering, economic, scientific, social and technological forward momentum, the next generation of children born in the poorest countries around the world could be the first generation fortunate enough to take safe drinking water for granted.

Get involved. To learn more about the UN's Millennium Development Goals, visit www.endpoverty2015.org. To learn more about how about the worldwide challenges to provide safe drinking water, visit www.1h2o.org.

Sources:
LifeStraw Personal, "LifeStraw Concept."
The Colbert Report, "Interview - Dean Kamen." Comedy Central
UN Millennium Development Goals, "Ensure Environmental Sustainability."