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Historical Thursday: SODIS Solution

Coolness!

 
 

Sent to you by tony via Google Reader:

 
 

via There, I Fixed It - Epic Kludge Photos by Ms. Fix-It on 5/13/10

So, I'm a total nerd. Every year for Christmas the only gift I request of my husband is to renew my subscription to National Geographic.
While finding clean water to support the population of Sub-Saharan Africa is an ongoing problem, in 2006 Ibelatha Mhelela, the principal at a primary school in Tanzania, implemented a simple solution.

Epic Kludge Photo - Clean Water

Turns out, even if people live nowhere near a clean source of water, as long as they have plastic bottles they can CREATE clean water. It's known as the SODIS program. Basically, you peel the label off any plastic water bottle and fill it with standing water, as long as the water isn't completely brown. Then place the bottle on top of a metal surface (for better heat conductivity) and leave it alone. Within six hours, the UVA radiation will kill parasites, bacteria and other harmful elements in the water, making it safe to drink.

And don't worry, Snopes assures me that it perfectly safe to drink water from bottles that have been left in the sun.

In unrelated news, some of you may remember that I had been obsessed excited about a new history project I was working on with other members of Cheezburger. Guess what? It's totally up and running!

Image and Information Courtesy Of: National Geographic



 
 

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