Low-tech solutions save lives one drop at a time

You can go for months without food. You can go for weeks without sleep. Without water, you will die in a few days. Our bodies consist mainly of water, and yet many people in the world are denied access to this life necessity. Tomorrow, count how many times you turn on the faucet. How many gallons of water do you use in a single day? The average American family uses more than 700 gallons of water each day. For most of us, a quick twist of the knob yields cold, hot, clear, clean water. We don't even have to think about it. The average family in Africa, on the other hand, has access to about five gallons of water each day and those five gallons are a precious, and often deadly, resource.

The number one cause of death in industrialized countries is heart disease. In third world countries, it is water-borne disease. According to the World Health Organization, unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation cause an annual death toll of 1.5 million, mostly children under five years of age. More people die each year of water-borne disease than from AIDS and cancer combined. In developing countries, turning on the faucet is a risk, if you have access to a faucet at all. Organizations like Water and Charity:Water are fighting to change this. Their members believe that access to clean, affordable drinking water is a human right, and their solutions are simple.

Any tool designed for widespread use must be affordabe, durable and easy to use. The Lifestraw, made by Vestergaard Frandsen, fits the bill. The 10 inch long tube requires no electricity or batteries, which can be hard to come by in remote areas, and costs only a few dollars. Dirty water is forced through the tube and through micro-filters which remove nearly all contaminants, specifically disease-causing microorganisms which spread diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid and cholera. One person can use the Lifestraw for approximately one year before it should be replaced. Not only is a product like Lifestraw great for those without access to clean water in their own villages, it's useful for travellers who may not know whether or not the local water is safe.

Biosand water filters have been used for centuries as a low-tech, low-cost way to make water potable. Hydraid's biosand water filter can be installed within a half hour, can meet the daily needs of about ten people and lasts for more than ten years. It has no parts to replace, operates on demand and requires only gravity. Field tests have shown that Hydraid's BioSand Filters continue to be used by 85 percent of its users after eight years. According to its website, the medical-grade plastic has also been approved by the FDA for drinking water and is UV resistant so it won’t break down in sunlight.

A biosand water filter is composed of multiple layers of sand, gravel and a biological surface layer that consumes pathogens. Water is poured into the top, where it flows through the biological layer and then down through the layers of sand and gravel. As water collects at the base of the filter, gravity feeds the water through plastic piping and is ready for use.

The simplest solution may not be manmade. Seeds from the Moringa oleifera tree, when crushed into a powder and added to water, have been shown to kill between 90 and 99 percent of waterborne bacteria within the first few hours of treatment. A February 2010 article in Current Protocols in Microbiology describes the extraction and water treatment procedure. As the tree can be readily grown, and already naturally grows, in countries affected by poor water sanitation like Africa, Central and South America and southeast Asia, it could be a practical and affordable way to prevent deaths from water-borne disease. The researchers do caution that, like most filtration systems, 100 percent safety is not guaranteed. 

None of these tools, however, will make a difference if access to water itself is denied. And many of these products and techniques remain unknown in the communities that need them most. Knowledge of proper hygiene and water treatment, as well as affordable water treatment tools, are necessary to give everyone in the world the right to clean water.