Water “The Elixir of Life”

Water is the substance that is essential to life. Without water, we cannot live. According to www.worldwaterconcil.org (Water Supply & Sanitation), one in ten people lack the access to clean water and 1.8 million people die from diarrheal disease. This cannot happen anymore. People are losing their lives because they don’t have clean water. Right now people are offering two solutions, one is asking for donations to build a well, and two is selling water filters. Just donating money to different websites is not as productive as new inventions, and so we should focus on creating new inventions that can help with water problems.

One way that people are trying to help places with no water is that they are making organizations that try to persuade people to donate money and using the money that people have donated. They will get the equipment to build a well at a place that doesn’t have water. When they build a well, usually a whole village gets water, and nearby villages can also come and get water from them. There is this one website called Charity Water which raises money and helps build wells. My grade donated to the website, and in total we raised $25,130. This is not advertising or required, but if you want to donate, you can go to: https://my.charitywater.org. Donating will help many people worldwide. Charity Water also teaches people in the village how to take care of the well and how to repair it if it is broken. If the well is so broken that the people in the village cannot fix it, Charity Water will send someone there and help them fix it for free. These websites might be helpful for a bit, but soon people might not donate as much money as before because they need it for themselves.

Other than the organizations for building wells, people are creating new inventions such as lead detectors, water purifiers, etc. One company called LifeStraw makes water bottles with straws able to filter water so that the water will be safe to drink. Another cool invention is the Tethys, which is a water lead detector made by Gitanjali Rao, who is a 12-year-old. She won the Young Scientist challenge and got $25,000. The Tethys uses carbon nanotubes to detect lead in water and then sends the results to a smartphone with the Tethys app (Prisco). Attention: This device is not yet out on the market. One invention that has been around for a long time is Ceramic Water Filters. They are clay ceramic that have lots of tiny holes. The tiny holes are only big enough for water molecules to go through. Bacteria, dirt, and other bad stuff are too big to go through the small holes. This device was designed by Henry Doulton who is a British potter. This device was made in the early 1800’s (Kiger). Now, people are modifying the device by adding a silver coating to kill the bacteria and dangerous pathogens. There are still many inventions that are being made and are being tested. To me, all of these inventions are amazing and very cool.

Water filters are better than building wells. To build a well, it costs $6,000-$12,000 depending on how deep the water is (Brenner). People are going to have to donate at least $6,000 to build one well. On the other hand, buying a portable water filter costs $150-$275 (www.fixr.com). This difference lets you see how much money people need to donate to build a well compared to how much money a portable water filter costs. Lot of people argue that building wells can help more people, but people can share a water filter just like a well, and it’s much cheaper. Many people also say that water filters don’t work. Reasons that they might not work is because you have to change the filter once in a while. Some water filters might have a light to indicate that it’s time to change the filter, and others will have instructions that will recommend to change it every few days. Donating money to websites might not last as long as water filters. Ergo, people should focus more on developing new water filters. That work is more important than making organizations that ask for donations to build a well.

 

Work Cited

Brenner, Laurie. “The Average Cost for a Well & Septic System | Hunker.” Hunker.com, Hunker, 26 Nov. 2009, www.hunker.com/13402537/the-average-cost-for-a-well-septic-system

“Cost to Install a Water Treatment System – Estimates and Prices at Fixr.” Fixr.com, Fixr Blog, 22 Feb. 2016, www.fixr.com/costs/water-purification-system

Kiger, Patrick J. “10 Innovations in Water Purification.” HowStuffWorks Science, HowStuffWorks, 8 Mar. 2018,

https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-tech/sustainable/10-innovations-water-purification2.htm

Prisco, Jacopo. “The 12-Year Old Who Won a $25,000 Science Prize.” CNN, Cable News Network, 15 Feb. 2018, www.cnn.com/2017/11/28/health/gitanjali-rao-young-scientist-winner/index.html

“Water Supply & Sanitation.” World Water Council, www.worldwatercouncil.org/en/water-supply-sanitation

 

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