The Drinkable Book

According to the world health organisation, [1]

“More than 3.4 million people die each year from water sanitation and hygiene-related causes. Nearly all deaths, 99 percent, occur in the developing world”

In many countries, clean and safe drinking water is not easily available. To access clean water people will often have to wait in line, boil it (which consumes a lot of energy) or use an expensive ceramic filter. However, realistically many people are not able to clean the water they drink at all.

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon and the University of Virginia have created a type of paper that is coated in silver nanoparticles which kill the bacteria in the water.

The ‘Drinkable book’ as it is known, is full with enough pages to provide one person with up to 4 years worth of clean water. Each page can be used to clean up to 100 litres of water, roughly providing clean water for 30 days.

How does this work exactly?

Well, each page has been treated in a bath of silver irons and a chemical reduction agent. The paper is then drained and heated up to around 200 degrees Fahrenheit! Once the paper is full of these silver nanoparticles, it is rinsed and dried once again. After the process the paper is a beautiful orange rust colour.

Amazingly the pages don’t act like a filter and trap the bad bacteria. In actual fact what happens is the bacteria absorbs the silver irons from the paper, which causes the bacteria to die. Making the water safe for consumption. The newly clean water then drips through the paper into the box that comes supplied with the book. [2]

waterislife.com

The pages were put to the test in south Africa, Ghana and Bangladesh, using 25 different contaminated water sources. The paper managed to remove over 99% of the harmful bacteria’s that were present before. [3] As well as being able to provide safe drinking water, the book is also a tool to educate the importance of clean water. Each page of the book has instructions on hot to use the pages as well as guidelines and tips on safe water consumption. The ‘Drinkable book’ has the abliity to provide many people in developing country’s with cheap and most importantly safe drinking water.

Papers and the ‘Drinkable Book’ are hoping to raise $30,000 to help them with the creating of these books and to help them test them in some of the most under developed countries. If you wish to read up on how your donations can help, click on the button below, or to donate via PayPal click here.