Water supplies are often abundant in developing countires, but drinkable water is not.
This was the dilemma Timothy Whitehead discovered during a trip to Zambia, a sub-Sararah Arfrican Country of roughly 13 million people.
“There seemed to be so much water around, but you couldn’t drink it,” said Whitehead, a design and technology graduate from Loughborough Univesrity in the UK who has gone on to found Pure Water Technology.
The answer fpr sterilizing the water was chlorine and iodine tablets, which is time consuming and negatively affects the water’s taste. In search of a better solution, Whitehead developed a sleek bottle that can scoop up water from virtually any source and make it safe to drink within two minutes. It removes 99.9 percent of contaminents.
WHCC Health Innovations recently spoke with Whitehead about the technology and his plans for the product.
The Pure water bottle is about the size of a regular water bottle and holds a litre of water. An ultraviolet light bulb steralizes the water with the aid of another filter. The bulb only needs to be replaced every 8,000 litres and the filter every 500 litres. The device can be recharged by a hand crank, thus removing the need for an exteranal power supply.
Whitehead oringally intented the bottle be used by travelers and tourists who found themsevlves in a rural area that lacked adequate drinking water. But he has since realized there are addtional markets, including local populations, that can benefit from the device. In addtion to providing clean drinking water for rural populations, Pure may also be a sound solution to providing clean water to natural disaster areas.
The global technology world has taken notice. The INDEX 2011 Design to Improve Life Awards, IDSA 2011 IDEA Award, Core 77 Design Awards and James Dyson Award have also recognized Pure. Whithead took home the UK Dyson Award in 2010 for the design.
Pure is in the prototype phase, but Whitehead said he is looking to build out the devices’ production and distribution.
November 5, 2011 at 8:25 am |
thanks for this post. so informative.
November 8, 2011 at 5:43 am |
This should be made readily available and affordable for people in developing countries. It could have an extraordinary impact on global health.
November 17, 2011 at 12:45 pm |
This is a super important invention. I wish Mr. Whitehead lots of success with his product. It was important that he came to the realization that the device is not only useful for tourists but also for locals in places where access to potable water is difficult. Millions around the world suffer from preventable diseases that often cause death. Such diseases are caused from consumption of contaminated water. The Pure Bottle may seem an excellent way to bring drinking water to the many that desperately need it worldwide. My only hope is that the Pure Bottle may become affordable in such regions of the world.
November 29, 2011 at 6:06 am |
Hi.
I’ve read your article. Tap water’s main advantages are availability, cost (it’s more or less free of cost) and fact that it’s environment friendly (no transport, no plastic bottle producing, no distribution, no water). Disadvantage: it contains chemicals that provide drinkability. So it can be genotoxic, the level of it can increase with old or bad pipes etc.
On the other hand all types of water (even natural spring and mineral) contain chemical substances which despite very low levels harm human’s health. So reducing the level of genotoxic materials is essential.
You might want to check unique bottle available in UK now, called Flaska. This glass bottle is programmed meaning that the information imprinted into the glass changes water’s structure and surface tension and thus lowers genotoxicity.
And it needs no filters so no extra cost!
December 16, 2011 at 2:15 am |
Any idea what the cost per output is? Can this be done on a larger scale or was the focus on temporary drinking water?
Way to go Timothy! I love it when people persue their passion and get rewarded for it, monetarily or otherwise. This is what life is all about!
Great post
February 17, 2012 at 1:35 am |
“There seemed to be so much water around, but you couldn’t drink it,” I think it is very a useful product to make water drinkable and utilize the dirty water. hope it will available in modified shape in market in next few days.
February 23, 2012 at 1:41 pm |
The pure bottle is an amazing product that can help people all around the world and help save lives from drinking contaminated water. In fact, I could see campers, hikers and just for safety sake, people wanting to keep one in their car or home for emergencies. Our armed forces could use it as well. Great idea…