Uploaded on Aug 4, 2009
http://www.ted.com Too much of the world lacks access to clean drinking water. Engineer Michael Pritchard did something about it -- inventing the portable Lifesaver filter, which can make the most revolting water drinkable in seconds. An amazing demo from TEDGlobal 2009.
0:11
Good morning everybody. I'd like to talk about a couple of things today.
The first thing is water. Now I see you've all been enjoying the water that's
been provided for you here at the conference, over the past couple of days. And
I'm sure you'll feel that it's from a safe source.
0:27
But what if it
wasn't? What if it was from a source like this? Then statistics would actually
say that half of you would now be suffering with diarrhea. I talked a lot in the
past about statistics, and the provision of safe drinking water for all. But
they just don't seem to get through. And I think I've worked out why. It's
because, using current thinking, the scale of the problem just seems too huge to
contemplate solving. So we just switch off: us, governments and aid agencies.
Well, today, I'd like to show you that through thinking differently, the problem
has been solved. By the way, since I've been speaking, another 13,000 people
around the world are suffering now with diarrhea. And four children have just
died.
1:32
I invented Lifesaver bottle because I got angry. I, like most
of you, was sitting down, the day after Christmas in 2004, when I was watching
the devastating news of the Asian tsunami as it rolled in, playing out on TV.
The days and weeks that followed, people fleeing to the hills, being forced to
drink contaminated water or face death. That really stuck with me. Then, a few
months later, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the side of America. "Okay," I
thought, "here's a First World country, let's see what they can do." Day one:
nothing. Day two: nothing. Do you know it took five days to get water to the
Superdome? People were shooting each other on the streets for TV sets and water.
That's when I decided I had to do something.
2:31
Now I spent a lot of
time in my garage, over the next weeks and months, and also in my kitchen --
much to the dismay of my wife. (Laughter) However, after a few failed
prototypes, I finally came up with this, the Lifesaver bottle.
2:47
Okay,
now for the science bit. Before Lifesaver, the best hand filters were only
capable of filtering down to about 200 nanometers. The smallest bacteria is
about 200 nanometers. So a 200-nanometer bacteria is going to get through a
200-nanometer hole. The smallest virus, on the other hand, is about 25
nanometers. So that's definitely going to get through those 200 nanometer holes.
Lifesaver pores are 15 nanometers. So nothing is getting
through.
3:23
Okay, I'm going to give you a bit of a demonstration. Would
you like to see that? I spent all the time setting this up, so I guess I should.
We're in the fine city of Oxford. So -- someone's done that up. Fine city of
Oxford, so what I've done is I've gone and got some water from the River
Cherwell, and the River Thames, that flow through here. And this is the water.
But I got to thinking, you know, if we were in the middle of a flood zone in
Bangladesh, the water wouldn't look like this. So I've gone and got some stuff
to add into it. And this is from my pond.
3:54
(Sniffs) (Coughs) Have a
smell of that, mister cameraman.
3:58
Okay. (Laughs) Right. We're just
going to pour that in there.
4:05
Audience: Ugh!
4:07
Michael
Pritchard: Okay. We've got some runoff from a sewage plant farm. So I'm just
going to put that in there. (Laughter) Put that in there. There we go.
(Laughter) And some other bits and pieces, chuck that in there. And I've got a
gift here from a friend of mine's rabbit. So we're just going to put that in
there as well. (Laughter) Okay. (Laughter) Now.
4:37
The Lifesaver bottle
works really simply. You just scoop the water up. Today I'm going to use a jug
just to show you all. Let's get a bit of that poo in there. That's not dirty
enough. Let's just stir that up a little bit. Okay, so I'm going to take this
really filthy water, and put it in here. Do you want a drink yet? (Laughter)
Okay. There we go. Replace the top. Give it a few pumps. Okay? That's all that's
necessary. Now as soon as I pop the teat, sterile drinking water is going to
come out. I've got to be quick. Okay, ready? There we go. Mind the electrics.
That is safe, sterile drinking water. (Applause) Cheers. (Applause) There you go
Chris. (Applause) What's it taste of?
5:55
Chris Anderson:
Delicious.
5:57
Michael Pritchard: Okay. Let's see Chris's program
throughout the rest of the show. Okay? (Laughter)
6:06
Okay. Lifesaver
bottle is used by thousands of people around the world. It'll last for 6,000
liters. And when it's expired, using failsafe technology, the system will shut
off, protecting the user. Pop the cartridge out. Pop a new one in. It's good for
another 6,000 liters.
6:25
So let's look at the applications.
Traditionally, in a crisis, what do we do? We ship water. Then, after a few
weeks, we set up camps. And people are forced to come into the camps to get
their safe drinking water. What happens when 20,000 people congregate in a camp?
Diseases spread. More resources are required. The problem just becomes
self-perpetuating. But by thinking differently, and shipping these, people can
stay put. They can make their own sterile drinking water, and start to get on
with rebuilding their homes and their lives.
7:06
Now, it doesn't require
a natural disaster for this to work. Using the old thinking, of national
infrastructure and pipe work, is too expensive. When you run the numbers on a
calculator, you run out of noughts. So here is the "thinking different"
bit.
7:26
Instead of shipping water, and using man-made processes to do
it, let's use Mother Nature. She's got a fantastic system. She picks the water
up from there, desalinates it, for free, transports it over there, and dumps it
onto the mountains, rivers, and streams. And where do people live? Near water.
All we've go to do is make it sterile. How do we do that?
7:50
Well, we
could use the Lifesaver bottle. Or we could use one of these. The same
technology, in a jerry can. This will process 25,000 liters of water; that's
good enough for a family of four, for three years. And how much does it cost?
About half a cent a day to run. Thank you.
8:16
(Applause)
8:19
So,
by thinking differently, and processing water at the point of use, mothers and
children no longer have to walk four hours a day to collect their water. They
can get it from a source nearby. So with just eight billion dollars, we can hit
the millennium goal's target of halving the number of people without access to
safe drinking water. To put that into context, The U.K. government spends about
12 billion pounds a year on foreign aid. But why stop there? With 20 billion
dollars, everyone can have access to safe drinking water. So the
three-and-a-half billion people that suffer every year as a result, and the two
million kids that die every year, will live. Thank you.
