The number of people lacking access to safe water has continued to increase every year. Due to climatic changes and heavy pollution, the crisis continues to get worse. As of now, organizations such as WHO and World Vision have raised an alarm of a global water crisis. But science and technology are improving the condition. Have you heard of ‘Drinkable Book”?
Can you imagine a book that you tear out pages and use them to turn raw sewerage to safe drinking water? Well, that is what the ‘Drinkable Book’ is offering. Each page has unique water filtration properties that make it possible to filter even the most contaminated water.
What Is A Drinkable Book?
A Drinkable Book is the work of a researcher Theresa Dankovich from Carnegie Mellon University. As the name suggests, it is a book that can help filter filthy water and turn it safe for drinking and other uses. According to Dankovich, the reason for working on this project was to help the environment by providing greener chemistry in water filtration. That is the reason this water filtration is of the best green option in the market.
From the tests done on the filter, it was proven that it could purify the dirtiest water by removing up to 99.99% of the bacteria and other harmful microorganisms in the water. It has been tested for the most contaminated water, such as the sewer water, and found work to be great. Some of the countries that have was used include South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Haiti, and Bangladesh.
How Does It Work?
According to Dankovich, the book pages are coated with silver or copper ions, which are highly toxic to bacteria but safe for humans. So, when the microbes absorb these ions, as the water comes into contact with the filter, they are killed instantly. That is how the book works. The amount of copper or silver ions used is small, but it will kill all the bacteria that cause cholera, typhoid, and many others.
3 Steps Of Using Drinkable Book
To get safe water from this book, there are set out steps that must be followed. Like any other water filter, you must follow the provided steps to get the expected results. Here are the three main steps to follow:
- First, you have to tear the filter from the book’s page. Each page has filters making, and you need to use one filter at a time.
- The second step is sliding the filter into the custom-made filter box. The box is provided with the book. Using the custom-made box ensures that no bacteria escapes when filtering the water.
- Pour the water you want to filter through. What comes out of the box is safe water to drink.
These are the only three steps that you need to take to get clean water using the ‘Drinkable Book’ filtration system. Each filter provides up 100 litres of safe water for drinking. Therefore, one page can provide safe water for a couple of weeks. The whole book will last for about a year.
Pros Of Drinkable Book
There are many things that make ‘The Drinkable Book’ one of the go-to options, especially for the low-income areas. First, it is very cheap to filter water using this book as it will cost cents to have safe drinking water. Second, it is an eco-friendly option. The pages are made from renewable resources. The filter also removes 99.99% of bacteria in the water, making one of the most effective water filters around.
Cons Of Drinkable Book
The Drinkable Book is designed to kill bacteria and not the chemical compounds in the water, which are equally dangerous. So, where we have the water polluted from industrial waste, this filter may not provide 100% safe water for drinking. Even the researcher, Theresa Dankovich, admitted that some metal particles do seep through the water but in small amounts. So, you could still have lead, mercury, arsenic, and other heavy metals in the water.
The Drinkable Book is a perfect water filter for water that is only contaminated by disease-causing microbes. It will provide water that is 99.99% free of bacteria and other microbes. However, do not use it for the water that has tested positive for heavy metals.