Water for the World

Fifteen students at the University of Iowa did something pretty amazing recently. When faced with a challenge in an engineering class, lack of clean drinking water for 1/6th of the population on earth, the students came up with something remarkable. What started as a class project, led them to create an EPA winning award and recognition at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago yesterday.

What was this amazing invention? A hand-held water sanitizer for a cost of about $5 a piece. The students won $75,000 in awards and are hoping to use this to reach even more people. The students are already working with resident in Xicotepec, Mexico and want to add Gahna to the list of places they want to impact. These water sanitizers will not only bring drinking water to people who normally don't have access to clean sources, but by doing so, can drasticaly increase the standard of living for many people and make their lives healthier one drop at a time.


Photo from Theilr's photostream on Flickr and used under Creative Commons.

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