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- LifeStraw Water Filter & Purifier, Africa
LifeStraw Water Filter & Purifier, Africa
Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania
last update:
3 weeks agoProblems
Lack of acces to safe drinking water
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) called for reducing the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by half between 1990 and 2015. Yet, an estimated 884 million people in the world, 37% of whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa, still use unimproved drinking water sources. Lack of access to safe drinking water contributes to the staggering burden of diarrhoeal diseases worldwide, particularly affecting the young, the immuno-compromised, and the poor. Nearly one in five child deaths – about 1.5 million yearly – is due to diarrhea. Diarrhoea kills more young children than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. Drinking contaminated water also reduces personal productive time, with widespread economic effects. Approximately 43% of the global population, especially the lower-income populace in the remote and rural parts of the developing world, is deprived of household-safe piped water. Thus, there is a pressing need for effective and affordable options for obtaining safe drinking water at home. Point-of-use (POU) treatment is an alternative approach to accelerate the health gains associated with providing safe drinking water to at-risk populations. It empowers people to control the quality of their drinking water. Treating water at the household level or other point of use also reduces the risk of waterborne disease arising from recontamination during collection, transport, and use in the home, a well-known cause of water quality degradation. In many rural and urban areas of the developing world, household water quality inventions can reduce diarrhea morbidity by more than 40%. Treating water in the home offers significant health gains at potentially dramatic cost savings over conventional improvements in water supplies, such as piped water connections to households. Water filters are the most effective intervention for reducing diarrhoeal diseases among all point-of-use water treatment methods.
Solutions
Straws that filter bacteria and parasites in water
Author: Adventures Travel News
Lifestraw is a personal water filter that allows you to drink straight from a stream or puddle and was initially developed for humanitarian aid efforts in Africa. The original goal was to provide a child in Africa with a portable solution for finding drinkable water for minimal cost. The product is extremely simple, durable, lightweight, easy to use and highly effective. The filter removes virtually all bacteria from the water, becoming a favourite tool for humanitarian aid and national disasters and crises worldwide. It has been distributed in the millions in Haiti, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Africa. After developing the LifeStraw Guinea Worm Filter, the Vestergaard company looked to expand the technology inside the pipe-like straw to offer protection against other causes of waterborne illness, such as bacteria and parasites. In 2005, this became the official LifeStraw technology, and in 2008, LifeStraw created its first larger-capacity filter that also removes viruses: the LifeStraw Family. The company’s sole focus continued to be tackling waterborne disease issues in vulnerable communities in the developing world. It was only in 2011 when LifeStraw began its retail program, as demand for LifeStraw’s innovative filter technology became overwhelming. In particular, outdoor enthusiasts saw a vast potential in LifeStraw products to enhance their outdoor experience. And, weighing only two ounces, LifeStraw became a perfect tool for backpackers and outdoorsmen seeking to limit the weight of their packs while ensuring safe hydration. Since 2011, LifeStraw has launched seven additional products geared toward outdoor adventurists, athletes, and disaster preparedness in the retail space. LifeStraw has been developing the Max for several years to meet the needs of low-resource communities with unsafe piped water. The LifeStraw Max water purification device delivers portable, potable water during ecological and humanitarian disasters or for communities without access to tap water. It instantly purifies source water at up to 150 litres per hour without needing electricity, battery power or chemicals. LifeStraw has also strongly focused on tackling sustainability and single-use plastics recently. The LifeStraw Go water bottles, in particular, aim to minimize single-use plastic water bottles, which are a huge source of individual plastic consumption. This sustainability effort to eliminate single-use plastics has been adopted across industries. Beyond traditional retail, LifeStraw’s wide range of products is very practical for diverse purposes, such as responding to humanitarian disasters or supplying crews with access to safe water during outdoor adventures.
Gallery
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Timelines
2022
The LifeStraw Max was introduced and designed as an easily deployed water-filtration system for disaster relief and humanitarian crises in developing nations. The LifeStraw Max is tiny (20 by 16 by 13 inches). It’s also lightweight at 16 pounds, and its carry handles make it easy to move around. Using a standard garden-hose fitting to connect to an existing water supply, it uses pipe pressure to force the water through ultrafilters, which can remove particles as small as individual viruses.
2021
LifeStraw officially becomes a B Corp!
2020
LifeStraw becomes a carbon-neutral company, offsetting all annual greenhouse gas emissions. Our Give Back program reaches over 4.6 million kids with a year of safe water.
2019
LifeStraw Home, a water filter pitcher that addresses serious tap water quality issues is introduced. It is the first LifeStraw product to enter home, lifestyle market
2016
LifeStraw wins an outdoor industry inspiration award for the achievement of over 1 million kids reached with a year of safe water.
2014
LifeStraw launches a Give Back program through which, for every LifeStraw sold, one school child in need to receive safe water for an entire school year.
2011
The LifeStraw Carbon for Water campaign uses carbon financing to provide 4 million people in Kenya with sustainable access to safe drinking water.
2008
LifeStraw’s parent company, Vestergaard, builds and finances the Emusanda Health Center to ensure access to health services, including HIV/AIDS treatment.
2005
The award-winning portable LifeStraw personal water filter evolves from the Guinea worm filter. It removes bacteria and parasites, the main causes of waterborne illness.
1994
LifeStraw begins working with The Carter Center, creating a simple mesh filter to remove Guinea worm from drinking water.