MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) — If you listen to inventor Dean Kamen, the biggest health problem facing the world today is not AIDS, obesity or malnutrition. It’s a shortage of water. Water is the most abundant resource on the planet, yet less than one percent of the Earth’s freshwater supply is readily available to drink, according to the World Health Organization. Lack of accessible or clean drinking water, exacerbated by drought, is crippling communities in many developing countries.
“In your lifetime, my lifetime, we will see water be a really scarce, valuable commodity,” Kamen says.
Those are scary words from the man whose creations include the Segway personal motorized scooter and the Luke (as in Skywalker) prosthetic arm. But the forward-thinking inventor and his team at DEKA Research in Manchester, New Hampshire, aren’t sitting around waiting for the world’s wells to dry up.
They’ve been working on an invention they say can tap into 97 percent of the world’s undrinkable water.
It’s called the Slingshot, and it’s a portable, low energy machine that is designed to purify water in remote villages where there’s not a Wal-Mart in sight. The device takes its name from a well-known story. Perhaps you’ve heard about the Slingshot, which Kamen has been working on for more than 10 years. Over that time it has turned dirty river water, ocean water and even raw sewage into pure drinking water. Kamen says it can turn anything that looks wet, or has water in it, into the “stuff of life.”
A bit more practical than the Segway with an added bonus… no fluorides. I just hope they can keep it affordable.
This device will be of the most use in developing countries. Yes there’s waste product. There’s already a waste product and it’s mixed into the drinking water. This will be a huge improvement even if it’s not perfect. If they can bring the cost down to where villages can buy them, or charities can buy them, it will prevent a lot of disease and death.
PuR has water purification tablets that when dropped into a large drum, and stirred, will coagulate the impurities into clumps. So then pour the whole lot though a simple filter like cheese cloth, and you get clean drinkable water.
That’s one damn idiotic idea for a water cleansing machine.
Natural filters of sand and limestone do the same thing and cost practically nothing. There are many products and “how to” on the market already. Crushed limestone alone will produce water that is more than 99.99 per cent free of many forms of bacterial contamination. Add other natural filters like charcoal or minerals specific to chemical removal as needed…. or you can build a 1-2 gph solar powered distiller for about $20.
Why is it we can see the logic, and this person wants to make $2000
Re: references to Michael Pritchard… he’s just anther opportunist ready to take your dollars. His water bottle invention is has already been done and done and done.
http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/porwatfil.html
Future wars will be fought over water supplies.
We are already seeing countries arguing over water sources, even US states in conflict over water usage.
Its coming. Dean Kamen may have saved us from endless wars over vital resources.