The world can still become a better place, as The Drinkable Book provides knowledge and clean water for people in developing countries who lack the purest form of “life’s source”. It is one of the most unsettling facts of our world that the basic necessities that the developing world idly uses and overlooks daily, are luxuries to others.
A disturbing number of 663 million people do not have access to clean, drinking water in developing countries, a tragic fact that Dr. Theresa Dankovich at Carnegie Mello University has aimed to fix by creating The Drinkable Book. Every page holds information on the crucial importance of purified water, the ‘how’s and ‘why’s that all should be aware of.
While knowledge certainly is power, the nanoparticles of silver and copper embed into each and every page are definitely what distinguishes the book from the regular pamphlet and instructions on consuming clean water. The two metal-based additions effectively kill bacteria in contaminated water, by successfully filtering it until the near sought-after flawless purity.
Directed toward communities in developing countries, The Drinkable Book uses silver and copper to eliminate the bacteria found in the contaminated waters of poorer regions, where every sip could pose a health risk. According to Dankovich, the ions slip off the metal-based nanoparticles and are further absorbed by the microbes, killing harmful bacteria.
One single page of the book can clean up to 26 gallons of murky, microbe-filled water up to 99.9% purity, which is actually the average percentage of drinking water in the United States. The tests have been shown to be highly successful in 90% of cases and samples received, first trialed within a laboratory and then taken out in real-life situations where there is an unattended gap for a cost-efficient device.
The Drinkable Book was presented with 25 contaminated and challenging water samples from locations around South Africa, Ghana and Bangladesh, and successfully conquered them all, causing the bacteria content to plummet from 99.9% to even a full 100%, in some instances. There are now only a few more steps ahead before the book will reach the hands that need it the most.
Dr. Dankovich and her team are currently manually developing each book, but are hoping to scale up production by partnering up with organizations such as WaterIsLife, that will hopefully bring worldwide awareness and delivery of their low-cost yet highly efficient product to more developing countries.
One single book can provide a person’s needs for drinkable water for four years, and it is the hopes of the entire team that they will be able to turn their creation onto a large scale, in front of large audiences and for a large population that is still tragically suffering from contaminated sources of one of life’s most basic needs.
Image source: earth911.com
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