Anyone who does supply chain management, and especially those who do humanitarian logistics, know that shipping water is an expensive but necessary task. Large groups of people congregate in make-shift villages in the aftermath of natural disasters or to escape conflict zones, following the NGO water. The only other options they have are to drink contaminated water or die.
Michael Pritchard has found a simple, low-cost solution. In this video, he demonstrates one of the most promising humanitarian water bottles I have ever seen. I’m a little behind on my TED talks apparently (this is from 2009) but this is one I am happy to have seen late rather than never.
http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pritchard_invents_a_water_filter.html
So what happened to the LIFESAVER bottle? Well it’s apparently in use by the British military and is launching in the US now. The downside? It’s still 99 quid plus another 20 quid for shipping. Hopefully these costs can come down as production runs increase and the technology matures. Only then will this be feasible for some of the people who need it the most.
Credit to Patrick Foley, a Penn State/Smeal College of Business student, for bringing this article to my attention.