http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/michael_pritchard_invents_a_water_filter.html
This link brings to a video recorded a little more than 2 years ago about a man who invented a way for people to have easy access to safe drinking water. The man invented this water bottle that is capable with just a couple pumps to completely sterilize water. I had never heard of such a discovery before I casually ran through this video on the website of TED, an organization that holds conferences all around the world where the newest inventions in every scientific field are presented by their inventors. I thought, and still do, that it is crazy how such an important discovery has not really been discussed about at worldwide scale, since it does successfully tackle one of the biggest issues our world has been dealing with since the start of humanity. The video is about ten minutes long and he explains thoroughly about everything of how his invention works and how it could easily provide safe drinking water for all of the people on the world in a cheap efficient way. I was honestly pretty shocked to see that a solution has been found but that still two years later, the issue is still something millions of people suffer on. I would like to hear what you guys think about this and especially why you think wealthy nations who every year give billions and billions to humanitarian services do not use that money to provide people in poor nations with these bottles that are extremely efficient. What do you think should be done? Why do you think people have not publicized this major discovery and invention?
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ReplyDeleteThis is a fantastic invention because it is really related with all the people's daily life. Especially for the poor nations. I am shocked that in the video, the inventor,Michael Pritchard said as he was speaking nearly every 1.5 minutes, there are 13,000 people are suffering from dirty water and 4 children died for this issue. There was two images are also amazing. One is that a people is drinking very dirty water, and the other is a clean water just got filtered from his invention. I totally agree with you the rich governments should provide so wonderful inventions to poor nations to help the people who drink dirty water everyday. I guess the governments do not do that is because it causes the beneficial damage to the big companies who are high tax payers, such as BRITA. Even though, I think it is highly necessary to provide this LIFESAVER bottle to poor nations.
ReplyDeleteI just finished watching the video and that unbelievable that it could just cost half a cent per day to provide 25,000 liters of water for a four members' family instead of transporting fresh water from one place to another.
ReplyDeleteThe speaker in that video did a very good job presenting his invention. He definitely pointed out the need for cleaner water, and proved how easy the change could be with this new bottle. The world needs more people to think like this. Simple, creative solutions for big problems.
ReplyDeleteNow the next step is to actually put this bottle to the task at hand. It's frustrating to see a solution available that's not going to use. Hopefully soon this Lifesaver will get the jump start it needs to be distributed to nations where it can go about saving lives! I think it might just take a little for this invention to initially get going, and then hopefully soon the Lifesaver bottle will live up to its potential!
I am also a fan of the TED video clips. It provides us tons of creative ideas each week. The safe drinking bottle is a real valuable invention. If this invention can be used in the world wide, it will definitely change the situation that people in poor countries are still suffering the shortage of clean drinking water. But I am also considering the same question, if using the safe drinking bottle water only costs half cent a day, why such a useful invention haven’t been known by publics? I have the following assumption. It seems that the inventor is very happy the share his discovery to generals, he probably won’t ask too much for the patent fee. And because its low manufacture cost, large-scale production won’t be a problem either. Then what jeopardized the spread of it? Could it be the technology export regulation? We all know that the resources we are using now are not regenerative, like petroleum and mineral. Many countries are encouraging to develop renewable resources. But some governments will restrict its energy technology export in order to protect its intellectual property, even if this technology is more precious in humanism aspect. I am not saying that government protect intellectual property is not a good thing. Maybe the problem is where can we find a balance point to encourage people creative more innovations and also sharing their discovery with a proper return?
ReplyDeleteThis is a incredible invention. After I watched this video, i start to think the water i drived everyday whether clean enough or not, and whether I should buy this filter. However, I find some details in the video, which is the inventor want to use this water filter in the poor area. I think this is impossible or not the best choice. Because the filter is very small, it cannot meet these ares people's need. If we product more, the cost will be so much, and we can use this money to set up a factory to clean water in these poor area. This product is good for travelers, but not for poor people.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea is very powerful and accessible. There are more and more human in the world which human populations have just reached 7 billion not a long time ago. Drinkable water has become a tougher task for all the government and people in the world. Especially the developed countries and poverty countries which don’t have the money and technology to buy fresh water. The Life saver bottle can be a solution to the lack of fresh water problem. The life saver bottle doesn’t require a lot of money but it can help a lot of people. I think the life saver bottle is still in small size and I think if it becomes a bigger size that would help more people and more effective.
ReplyDeleteClean drinking water is certainly a current issue in many third world countries. I looked up the usage of the LIfeSaver bottle. The fact that it’s sold on Amazon says that the invention has not been forgotten and is in fact in profuse use today. There are many third world countries that may have difficulties in providing the $8 billion calculated to simply half the number of people without clean drinking water. Though there are countries and private organizations that would be able to help raise such amounts of money, such a goal is still a difficult one. Also, many countries suffer not just from the lack of safe drinking water but just water in general. For these people to gain access to water is yet another story. I am sure there have been many efforts to put this wonderful invention to use. The only reason we may not be able to observe a change on the global scale is due to the limitations that may exist in providing people with the bottle or with water in general.
ReplyDeleteThis is an incredible invention. From what I've seen, the final cost of each bottle is less than $200, and its only limitation is that it does not filter out dissolved salts, which wouldn't be a big problem from a freshwater source anyway. From what I understand, a single bottle can provide over ten years of clean water for one person. Considering this, the cost is well worth it.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be practical to repurpose a moderate amount of our foreign aid resources to the distribution of these bottles and replacement filters in areas lacking clean drinking water. In addition to the effectiveness of the bottles, stimulating that market could lead to further advancement in that field, possibly reducing the cost of such pursuits in the future.
I have no idea why people haven't publicized this invention; it seems phenomenal to me. I would definitely support the widespread use of LifeSaver bottles.
I think providing clean water world round would be a very complicated and expensive process. Water is considered to be a limited resource as well, so that may be a reason they have not decided to provide the clean water to as many people as possible. A may be a part of a plan to preserve the water for years to come in certain areas of the world. Some things are held back for reasons bigger than any of us may ever know.
ReplyDeleteIt is so amazing how the life saver bottle works!! It can make the water clean in few seconds. And I can't find something else more suitable than this to use in helping people who are suffering from the dirty water. It is small and convenience enough for people to carry. And the cost is pretty low!! It cost only 1/2 cent for a family per day to get the clean water by this great invention. The total cost for 3 years is only about five or six bucks!! I do think that the government in the third world should use for saving the lives.
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely a great invention since water is one of our most valuable resources. I agree that this would help third world countries and I’m surprised it hasn’t been more publicized like mentioned. It could still be in the process of becoming the new best thing and that’s why it’s not being utilized to it’s fullest potential. I believe in the future, something like this could change how everyone lives. It’s inventions like this that will help the poor and better the health of third world countries. I hope to see this out on the market and on shelves everywhere in the near future.
ReplyDeleteThe lifesaver bottle is a very interesting innovation, and I hope it will be used for those who need aid. I believe that it should only be a step in the process toward helping the poor, that is I believe that the water purification process will hopefully develop into a sustained process without dependence on 20 billion in foreign aid every year. There are many developments like the lifesaver bottle that have been invented, and hopefully they will cause us to shift to other problems because drinking water will be available to everyone
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