What is LifeStraw?

LifeStraw is a water filter, which converts contaminated water into clean and safe drinking water. However, getting safe drinking water is a big problem in many developing countries. So, this easy to use water filter is an effective tool to help people who deprive of clean and safe drinking water. It results in an increased risk of Diarrhea and other diseases as well. However, alone diarrhea kills 1.5 Million people every year.

So, clean water is the need of every individual in any part of the world. The LifeStraw water filter can filter about 4000 liters of water, and this much of water is enough for a person for about three years. It is an ingenious invention that can remove microbes, viruses, and parasites that can flow towards your mouth. As the population of the world is increasing and the climate is also changing at a rapid pace, so the demand for water is increasing. It is expected that by 2025, half of the World’s population will be living at that place where the demand for safe water exceeds by its supply.

It is a new generation Portable Water Purifier which is effective instantly and works with any kind of water. It can remove up to 99.9% of Parasites and 99.9999% of Bacteria like Cholera, Dysentery, and Typhoid Fever. While sipping water through this straw, it can even clean the muddiest water like it has to be pure and safe to drink. It can even remove harmful bacteria like Escherichia coli B and Enterococcus Faecalis bacteria and the MS2 Coliphage virus as well as iodine and silver. In addition to this, it can remove heavy metals like Iron, Fluoride, Arsenic, and Lead from the water.

Currently, the device is available in two different categories i.e. LifeStraw and LifeStraw Family. However, both of these devices are used and distributed to people during the 2010 Haiti Earthquake, 2010 Pakistan Floods, 2011 Thailand Floods, and 2016 Ecuador An earthquake along with other crises and initiatives. Likewise, the water filter device has been provided under Red Cross Society at Mutomo District in Kenya which faced severe drought. Under Red Cross Society the district has been provided with the device to 3,750 School Children and 6,750 Households.

Construction:

The LifeStraw Water Filter is 22 cm long and 3 cm in diameter of Plastic Tube. Water that has been sucked through tube passes from hollow fibers which filter the water particles up to 0.2 µm across. The device only uses plastic filtration methods and no chemicals are used in this process. A normal LifeStraw tube can filter up to 4000 liters of water. Without the supply of any electricity, it can filter the water. So, it doesn’t require electricity, batteries or any type of replacement parts over a period of time.

It is very easy to operate, as with the straw one needs to just suck the water and in no time can get safe and clean water to drink. It has an easy to clean pre-filter and purification cartridge. It even meets the clean water standards of the World Health Organization as well as the United States EPA drinking water standards.

The LifeStraw filters are available in different variants, LifeStraw Family 1.0, LifeStraw Family 2.0, LifeStraw Community, LifeStraw Guinea Worm Filter, LifeStraw, LifeStraw Steel, LifeStraw Go 2-stage, LifeStraw Mission, LifeStraw Play, LifeStraw Universal, and LifeStraw Flex.

How it Works:

LifeStraw Filter uses advanced hollow fiber tube technology. However, the different variants of LifeStraw work slightly different from each other. So, here we discuss the LifeStraw Family 1.0 initially.

The LifeStraw Family had a hollow tube that passes the water with force under high pressure. The Clean water exits through the tiny pores in the wall of the hollow fibers. It traps almost all the bacteria, protozoa, metals and other contamination of water inside these tubes of hollow fibers. Likewise, it is very easy to clean the device by flushing out water in the opposite direction which forces these harmful bacteria and dirt to get flushed out. This is a highly efficient and cheapest method of water filtration.

1. Fill the water bucket before filtration has 2 liter capacity for filling with unpurified water.

2. The 80-micron narrow tubes remove coarser particles and other viruses, bacteria, protozoa’s, and is easy to clean.

3. The Halogen chamber in the tube releases low-level chlorine to remove foul smell in the membrane.

4. The plastic tube is 1 meter long. Due to Gravity a sufficient amount of pressure develops on the membrane cartridge in order to reach a high flow rate.

5. Ultra-filtration takes place in the membrane cartridge – a pore size of 20 nanometers retains bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fine dirt particles.

6. To release the purified water turn the Blue tap.

7. Backwashing of the membranes can be easily performed by squeezing the red bulb 3 times and releasing the dirty water from the Red tap.

8. The Exit valve removes the dirt and impurities settled inside the tubes.

The LifeStraw received a huge amount of acclamation at the International Level and receives several awards, which includes the ‘Saatchi & Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas’ in 2008, the ‘IDEX: 2005’ International Design Award and ‘Best The invention of 2005’ by Time Magazine.