The leading cause of death and illness around the world isn't malaria, tuberculosis, or AIDS—it’s diarrhea. It's an ever-present threat for nearly 900 million people across the globe who drink, bathe, and cook with contaminated water. But environmental engineer David Manz, PhD, developed a remarkably cheap and easy way to purify water and now he's helping to slash the risk of cholera and deadly dysentery-causing diseases in villages throughout Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Manz was a professor at the University of Calgary in 1988 when, during trips to South Africa and the Philippines, he kept meeting people sickened by their local water. As soon as he got home, he began searching for affordable solutions. 'You don't have many opportunities in life to make a real difference," Manz says. "I decided to champion this idea as long as it took." On his own time and using his own money, he began experimenting with sand, long used in the developing world as a crude water filter. The problem: Pouring water through packed, fine grains removes large particles, making it less hazy, but doesn't always eliminate disease-causing bugs. Manz's brainstorm was to figure out a way to create a permanent "biofilm"- a layer atop the sand full of germ-eating microorganisms. About the size of an office water cooler, the BioSand Filter can supply household water that's free of up to 99 percent of bacteria and parasites that cause diarrhea.
Roughly 750,000 BioSand Filters, provided free by Manz, are now in use in the developing world. "We know this filter works," says Carolyn Meub, executive director of Pure Water for the World. A recent study found it can reduce rates of diarrhea among small children by 45 percent. Village doctors have told Meub that in the past, they couldn't keep enough diarrhea medicine in stock; now they barely need it. Thanks to Manz's filter, one woman in the hills of Honduras told Meub, her family was no longer plagued by illness. "Clean water," the woman said, "is medicine."
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If you want to help provide a BioSand Filter to a family in Latin America or Haiti, go to purewaterfortheworld.org/donation. Cost per filter, plus installation, instruction and more: $150.
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