Clean Water - Something to Think About

[Chris Fultz]

At the IRI Talent Show, one of the California teams did a skit about 'water'. Many of you may have seen it there, or somewhere else. It involves several people (and this time a horse) using the same cup of water to brush their teeth, and then a final student drinking the cup of liquid. When people see it, some laugh, some are offended, some wonder who these kids' parents are, and many of us sort of 'gag' as the cup is emptied.

So, what is the point to this post?

The cup of water that the last student drank was full of toothpaste and had already been through about 5 mouths. Despite this, it was still probably cleaner than the water that much of the worlds population has available to them on any given day. (I could try to impress you with a percentage, but I would be making a guess. I just know that it is very high.)

There is plenty of water to go around, but a great deal of it is not safe for human consumption. Some of it is not safe but is still consumed, leading to sickness, disease and even death.

As students who are interested in science, technology and engineering, this is just one of the worlds' problems you can try to solve. Deka is working on a solution, and so are other companies. There may be multiple ways to create clean water for the world.

This is just an example of one area where you all have the opportunity to really make the world a better place. Engineers solve problems, engineers find solutions to big issues. You are taking the right steps now thru your involvement with FIRST - learning how to work on teams, how when one of learns something new and then shares it we all benefit, how to get excited when someone else wins - keep it up!

I have great faith in our future.

[RoboMom]

If these issues interest you, there is another field to consider, (which can include engineering). It's "Public Health."The motto at Johns Hopkins, which has one of the best programs in the world is "Saving lives a million at a time." I know there was a thread a while back for students who didn't want to be engineers. So many of the skills learned in FIRST translate to many fields.

[Bharat Nain]

It definately is one of the big problems these days, sadly and unfortunately, most people don't realize that the water they are drinking is not safe. It's not the visible stuff. I personally use eSpring as a water purifier. It comes in a reasonable price for a household and offers the best possible protection that I have seen. eSpring also claims to be "The world's best source of water", I don't think any company would make such a claim unless they mean it. Overall, I have found eSpring to be very effective, check the website if you have doubts, contact me if you need more info. of if you wanna buy it.

The only other system which really cleans the water is Ozmosis but it wastes 80% of the water and takes out EVERYTHING except pure water, including the minerals that our body needs from the water, so it really isn't good for us. Ozmosis is also very very expensive and huge, so its not fit for any household.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by TeknoBramha

It definately is one of the big problems these days, sadly and unfortunately, most people don't realize that the water they are drinking is not safe. It's not the visible stuff.

Just one of the reasons I do not drink water.

[DCA Fan]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

Just one of the reasons I do not drink water.

lol Elgin...
I'm 1/2 amused by the fact that we have managed to take a talent show gag into a scientific discussion, but I really agree, water purification is perhaps the most major problem facing the developing world today. With Deka's Stirling Engine, one can hope that the technology would become avaliable to more rural areas, but there is a lot of research that needs to be done in this area.

[Mike Ciance]

isn't it funny how germaphobic we are here in america? i mean we have some of the cleanest, purest stuff in the world, and many of us are still not satisfied. we are so worried about which spray kills 99.99% of all germs, instead of just 99.9%. we worry about using water filters to "purify" water from our faucets that has already been treated and is safe to drink as-is. when i hear people say stuff like "o my god, did you know that when you flush the toilet, germs from there can land on your toothbrush, thats disgusting!" the only thing i find disgusting about that is that people actually worry about that stuff. we have amune systems, and people in these poor countries sometimes drink water that is safer than our toilet water, even after we use it. it would be much smarter to send some of our stuff to countries that need it. couldn't poor African peasants make better use of a Brita filter that us? We just need somebody to deliver them and teach the people how to use it.

i fully support anybody who tried to help these countries. they need it. we need to stop worrying about ourselves so much.

[Aaron Knight]

I, for one, am glad that I live in an area supplied by some of the cleanest public drinking water in this country

And people here will STILL filter their water. I don't like filtering, takes all the taste out of the water and makes the water too "soft."

On a more serious or to the point note, have there been any recent developments (publicly or not) in relation to Dean Kamen's device?

[Bill Beatty]

I am by no means an expert, but it is my understanding that the reverse osmosis process requires many stages to achieve almost pure water and requires quite of bit of maintenance. Deans water purifier, that we saw last July at Deka, was not a Stifling unit, but was powered by a Stirling generator, but it could use any electrical source of power. It uses the "pressurized distillation" process that reduces the required energy to distill water by a factor of almost 50 and it is also my understanding that this distillation process produces absolutely pure water. It could use any water source including sea water and is maintenance free. Amazing stuff.

Mr. Bill

[Rich Kressly]

Originally Posted by Bill Beatty

I could use any water source including sea water and is maintenance free. Amazing stuff.
Mr. Bill

I'm still amazed by what I saw there too Bill!

Originally Posted by RoboMom007

The motto at Johns Hopkins, which has one of the best programs in the world is "Saving lives a million at a time."

One of the finest members in Team 103 history (driver, President, you name it) Pat Bogard, is in the Public Health undergrad program at Hopkins and we couldn't be more proud of him.

[JoeXIII'007]

No matter how filthy the 'statistics' may make water, water is still the healthiest drink available to the world and all people should first have that before even considering opening up that can of Mountain Dew (which is the 2nd healthiest drink, just kidding!).

Getting serious now, with all the technology we humans have nowadays, I can't understand why we can't get massive amounts of water to all places that badly need it for next to nothing. There has to be some sort of barrier, whether it'd be political boundaries or geographic boundaries, etc. It is those that we need to find a way past first without sacrificing anything to do it. Then we can find engineering and/or technological ways to get the water over to those places.

[Chris Fultz]

Interesting the turns these forums can take.

I was really trying to make the point that as young students and hopefully soon to be engineers, scientists and technologists, YOU have the ability to try and do something positive about some of these big world problems. No just water, but food supply, clothing, disease, shelter, and so on.

I really wasn't looking to start a debate about Perrier, but thats the Chief for ya!. -

[ngreen]

As of late I've been reading a book about Bucky Fuller. I see a lot of these same thoughts and ideas were shared by him. About how we are all citizens of Spaceship Earth and as engineers, and citizens, it is our responsibility. It is amazing to think about how much we have as Americans than many people around the world. I know we all follow the almighty dollar but Bucky always took on the thought to do what is good for the world and the money will work out. I guess I should put this in the Inspirational books but there is a lot we can do to improve the world in the way Chris Fultz said.

[suneel112]

As far as water pollution goes, there are two types. Chemical and Biological. The first one is harder to solve, since it requires removing the chemical form the water. In addition, current processes are very expensive. Innovation will be required to make it more cost and energy effective. [Maybe using a biochip with enzymes attached to silicon layers to remove chemicals from the water and deposit them on silicon chips, which can then be disposed of or cleaned as needed.]
Biological pollution is much easier to remove. Every two years or so, I go to India to visit my relatives. I do not have to drink the same "dirty" water that they do, however, because there is a product in India called "AquaGuard". It consists of a basic filter to remove large particles and then passes the water through UV radiation. It cleans water only requiring electric power.
The main problem with that is that several countries with water problems also face electricity problems (Including India). In fact, Bombay is the only city in India that has stable electrical power (from the Indian Government's Nuclear Power / Research Reactors). All other cities face power outages. One way to clean up the water in India could just be to provide a stable power source, which could be provided by building a Nuclear-Power based infrastructure.
In a continent such as Africa, though, this would be a much harder problem (where there is virtually no infrastructure to build). In addition, many parts of Africa are very dry, and the moist parts have standing water and waterborne diseases. A power solution could be solar or wind power (not to be mean, but I laugh at the 'Sterling Engine'. As if you are going to keep something ice cold in the continent with the most area in the tropics in the world.). Could it be that the "dirty" water in Africa gives Africans important immunity to pernicious water and insect-borne diseases? Hopefully not, then the problem can be "easily" solved. [this will still take billions of dollars and a vast aquifier / electric system].
Another word about immunity, when I come back from India, I usually get sick for a few days because I switched from hyper-irradiated "overkilled" water to "Indiana Water", world famous for its high ferric and sulfuric content. In addition, a little bit of chlorine cannot even do half as much as irradiating it with high-energy photons.

This is just my 2 cents worth.

[jpsaul7usa]

Ug. This discussion reminds me of one of my intro to engineering course projects last fall. Groups of about 6 people had to design a water filter out of natural materials to purify very muddy water. It was a problem I had a lot of trouble solving. After we used several different designs and techniques we thought we had it right, but we didn't even come close to the other teams. That project killed my interest in filtration engineering. I didn't think it was nearly as fun as the bridge project.

[RudimentaryPeni]

we get those big water juggs from arrowhead water, so i hope those are safe... i trust them because they say its cleaner up there or something to that effect.