Our fifth graders have been doing a lengthy project on the problem of dirty water around the world. I don't know if you've heard, but it's a pretty huge problem. In fact, it affects around 1 billion people, and diseases from dirty water kill more kids around the world than HIV and Malaria combined.
Anyway, we got sample water filtration packets from PUR, and today I finally decided it was time for the demonstration. I mixed up some water and potting soil to make our dirty water.
(This is the second time we've had to make our own dirty water for an experiment, and today it finally hit me. We are fortunate enough to be forced to make our dirty water. What a blessed inconvenience, as a billion other people in our world are forced to make clean water.)
Once the dirty water was made, we sprinkled in the powder, gave it a good stir, and let it sit for several minutes. Besides the usual sediment that constitutes potting soil, the water itself cleared right up. After filtering said sediment, I had a cup of (almost) crystal clear water, and in what almost seemed like a dare from a room full of 50 fifth graders, I took several giant swigs. To their amazement, I even convinced one of my coteachers to drink some, too. The class went nuts. I felt a little bit like Johnny Knoxville or something.
And it didn't taste half bad. Pretty good actually. Sure, it still had quite a taste similar to the whiff of chalkiness you get when you open a bag of potting soil, but I can live with that.
But now that I'm home, my eyes kinda burn a little bit, they're oozing a little, and my throat is feeling a little raspy or something. I'm forgetting what exactly that powerful little powder is made of, but I can remember seeing a cloud of yellow dust poofing into the air when I first opened it. I'm wondering if it got the best of me. There's also the little detail that one packet is supposed to be used on 3 gallons of water, and I decided it wouldn't hurt to use a whole packet on only 1 and a half gallons of water, thinking it would only make it more pure, right? Either that, or it'd kill me. Now I'm thinking I should have been a little bit more careful with this experiment.
Regardless, it seems like PUR is doing some pretty good humanitarian work, at least in providing a short-term solution. If you ever have the opportunity (or heck, make an opportunity!) to support them or similar projects, I say go for it!
Friday, January 30, 2009
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3 comments:
On either the Daily Show or Colbert Report they had a guest on with a bike that had a water filtration system on it. You could ride it to a water source and then peddle the bike to pump dirty water, filter the water, store it in a big container attached to the bike, and ride your water home. It looked awesome.
That sounds amazing. I'm going to have to search the www for that one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U-mvfjyiao
Found it!
This is a really great idea; I love it! But like most solutions I've found, I wonder how well this design would work. Those wheels don't look exactly apt for most road conditions in the third world. And how easy will it be to replace the filter?
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