A team of students at theUniversity of Adelaidehas designed an elegantly bare yet effective water treatment system using empty chip packets , some plywood and glass tubing . What ’s more , the whole thing be just $ 67 and does n’t need skilled engineer to piece , make it ideal for remote community with no access to fresh water .
In the Western world , most of us probably take our pat and bottled water for grant . Safe water is something that millions of citizenry across the globe do not have the perquisite to get at . According to theCDC , around1 in 9 people , or 780 million someone , do n’t have memory access to improved imbibition H2O sources . Drinking unsafe water debunk soul to a kind of pathogens that often get diarrheal diseases , among others . It ’s figure that1.5 million people , 90 % of whom are child , conk each year from consuming dingy water supply .
Determined to make a dispute , University of Adelaidescientists teamed up with ChildFund Australia to learn about the body of water problems front by many community in Papua New Guinea ( PNG ) . They often trust on large tanks to collect rainwater which are easy pollute with disease - stimulate microbes .
“ Our priority was to break a organization with , and not just for , the end - substance abuser , ” leading researcher Dr. Cristian Birzer said in anews - release . “ We wanted something where we could provide design guidelines and permit the local community progress and install their own systems using readily available materials that could easily be maintained and replaced . ”
The squad started off by evolve an efficient water treatment system using high - quality materials . Then , using this as a foundation for design , they built arudimentary versionusing much cheaper materials . Their finished product works by guide on sunlight towards body of water inside a field glass thermionic tube with the help of a one-half cylinder line with reflective foil chip packets . The Sun ’s ultraviolet illumination - A radiation then stimulate the production ofreactive oxygen speciesin the water which canirreversibly damage pathogens ’ DNA , ultimately cause them to die . The students tried out various different ruminative material and found that check packets , which are a common trash point , worked just as well as anything else . In less than 30 minutes , the innovative system could come down high concentration ofE. colito undetectable levels .
grant to Birzer , the squad wanted to ward off the “ white man resolution ” by coming up with a tailor - made solution to a real problem that PNG communities face .
“ The last design is something that anyone can make , so it ’s not a intersection we ’re giving , it ’s just a concept , a conception that anyone can make and therefore they own it- it ’s theirs , ” Birzer toldABC News .
cost just $ 67 , the system can clean up almost 40 cubic decimetre of water in just 4 hours . If several organisation are establish together , then larger quantities can be treated to meet the need of larger villages .
According toABC News , ChildFund are due to start trials of the twist shortly in PNG . If successful , the concept will be roll out across the country to rural villages in pauperism .
[ ViaUniversity of AdelaideandABC News ]
