Portable Drinking Water Filration System

Pure, safe drinking water is often difficult or impossible to come by. Contamination and resulting disease directly and dramatically affects the health and income of rural farmers and their families.

The following video describes liter-size and 5-gallon-size portable water filters that can take highly contaminated water, such pond water that has been tainted by sewage from livestock and people, and quickly filter it into pure drinking water, removing even viruses with it's 15 nm (nano-meter) pore size. The small filter is good for 5000 gallons, and the large for 25,000 gallons, or three years for a fmaily, after which you keep the pump and replace the filter.

The video on ted.com is:

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pritchard_invents_a_water_filter.html

"Too much of the world lacks access to clean drinking water. Engineer Michael Pritchard did something about it -- inventing the portable Lifesaver filter, which can make the most revolting water drinkable in seconds. An amazing demo from TEDGlobal 2009." - ted.com

Michael Pritchard's bio on ted.com:

"During the twin tragedies of the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, Ipswich water-treatment expert Michael Pritchard winced helplessly at televised coverage of throngs of refugees waiting for days for a simple drink of clean water. Stricken by the chronic failure of aid agencies to surmount this basic challenge, Pritchard decided to do something about it.

Using a non-chemical nano-filtration hollow fiber membrane with 15 nanometer pores (it is designed to block viruses), the Lifesaver bottle can make the most revolting swamp water drinkable in seconds. Better still, a single long-lasting filter can clean 6,000 liters of water. Given the astronomical cost of shipping water to disaster areas, Pritchard's Lifesaver bottle could turn traditional aid models on their heads.

"On the outside, it looks like an ordinary sports bottle. On the inside, there's a miracle: an extremely advanced filtration system that makes murky water filled with deadly viruses and bacteria completely clean in just seconds." -

Allison Barrie, FoxNews.com

The website describing Lifesaver Systems water filters is:

http://www.lifesaversystems.com/

[Please note that my submission here is simply a reference to Michael's cool technology and ted.com's wonderful presentation of it. Please contact them directly; I am simply the bearer of their information.]