Image 4 of 5 from The LifeStraw makes dirty water clean

More than one billion people – one sixth of the world’s population - are without access to safe water supply. At any given moment, about half of the world's poor are suffering from waterborne diseases, of which over 6,000 – mainly children – die each day as a direct result of consuming unsafe drinking water. The world’s most prolific killer is diarrhoeal disease from bacteria like typhoid, cholera, e. coli, salmonella and many others. Safe water interventions have vast potential to transform the lives of millions, especially in areas such as poverty eradication, environmental upgradation, quality of life, child development and gender equality. LifeStraw was developed as a practical response to the billions of people who are still without access to these basic human rights and we believe it is an invention that could become one of the greatest life-savers in history. It is a 25 cm long, 29 mm diameter, plastic pipe filter and purchased singly, costs around US2.00. Until now, there was not much we could do about water born disease because systems to clean water are costly and require electricity and spare parts and … the LifeStraw now offers a viable means of saving tens of millions of lives every year. LifeStraw is a personal, low-cost water purification tool with a life time of 700 litres – approximately one year of water consumption for one person, two years for a child. Positive test results have been achieved on tap, turbid and saline water against common waterborne bacteria such as Salmonella, Shigella, Enterococcus and Staphylococcu. If we (as in the big WE) can find a way of funding and distributing one of these to each human at risk, every year, we could eradicate countless deaths. Each LifeStraw lasts for one person’s annual needs of clean water – a simple straw costing a few dollars will ensure that one at-risk person will not die for a year - now that's a donation we can all make with a serious kicker! Please tell as many people as you can about this.