Saving Lives through Lifeunit

A difference can be made by supplying Lifeunit to people who live with compromised water in areas of natural disasters.

Tag Words: Lifeunit; Water; Dirty Water; Natural Disasters; Waterborne Diseases; Diarrhea

Authors:  Wasim

Summary

On sites of natural disasters many people suffer from unsafe and dirty water. Because of the lack of access to freshwater, they have to face waterborne diseases that kill about 6,000 people every day. We want to make a difference by providing inexpensive water filters, Lifeunit, to people in natural disasters so that they can have more access to clean water.

The Issue: Dirty Water

Two out of three parts of our world are covered by water. 97.5% of the total water in the world is saltwater which leaves only 2.5% of freshwater. Among freshwater, 70% is in the form of ice and snow covered in mountainous regions, and 30% is groundwater. Therefore, the total usable freshwater supply for ecosystems and humans is only less than 1% of all freshwater resources. In approximately thirty years, the world’s population is believed to rise to about eight billion people, while the amount of fresh water will still remain constant.

However, the issue is not that there is not enough freshwater. On top of lacking freshwater, another problem is very large unequal amount of access to freshwater. For example, the Congo has more fresh water resources (291, 000 cubic meters per capita) than the United States (9,000 cubic meters per capita). But even with the Congo’s large fresh water source, only 17% of the rural inhabitants have access, compared to the 77% of the city and town dwellers that have access. In general, experts can agree to two main problems regarding the availability of fresh water. The first problem is that there is a dramatic virtual simultaneous extraction from ground aquifers, and the second problem is that there has been an extreme exponential increase in population (especially in third world countries). 

Water is a fundamental need for every human as air is critically essential. However, abundant people on our planet do not have this fundamental need satisfied. The most obvious examples can be seen on the continents of Africa and Asia especially

In addition to the fundamental need of water, three out of four diseases in third world nations can be attributed to drinking unclean water. A total of 2.8 billion people from 31 countries experience chronic water problems. Every day, 6,000 people die from ingesting dirty water. This equates to 2,102,400 people per year. In 2006, the study showed that 1.8 million people died from waterborne diseases each year while about 1.1 billion people lack safe drinking water. Diarrheal diseases cause 90% of all deaths of clean water which is the daily requirement for sanitation, bathing and cooking needs for assuring survival. The average person in the world uses only 2.6 gallons of water every day for their drinking, washing and cooking. One in six people worldwide do not have access to safe freshwater. It is estimated that 1.8 million people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions by 2025

Community Service Project

Our main goal for the Lifeunit project is to reduce the suffering people from ingesting dirty water throughout their daily lives in areas of natural disasters. The plan of the project is to make it open source for others on using hackaday platform to help for community. Or making it again and aging spreading the knowledge to other hackaday community.

The goal of the LifeUnit to respond to critics by providing cheaper water filters and removing the complete spectrum of microbiological contamination, including parasites like Giardia lamblia. Lifeunit is a rechargeable USB powered electronic control portable water filters designed by the wasimtech-based company in Pakistan for people in areas of natural disaster.

The Lifeunit is a form of the Lifeunit technology that is designed for the individual use. In addition to the personal uses, it is designed for drinking water outside of the home in the outdoor environment. Lifeunit Personal filters at least 700 liters of water which is enough for one person for one year. Only required to replace the filter from electronic recharge able pump about cost is only 4.2$ USD. The Lifeunit should be used for drinking water in an indoor environment such as the inside of homes. In addition, the Lifeunit has shown even higher effectiveness in filtering viruses, parasites, and other types of harmful organisms; it can also be utilized through turbidity for water. The Lifeunit has been praised for its effective and instant method of bacteria removal. According to the test results, Lifeunit removes 99.9999% of waterborne bacteria, 99.99% of viruses, and 99.99% of parasites.

Lifeunit has a technology called PuroTech Disinfecting Resin which is a type of substance that kills organisms on contact. In addition, it has textile pre-filters which can take out substances as small as 15 microns. Active carbon prevents organisms such as parasites from being ingested.When water is sucked by the filter through electronic USB pump; it first passes through a mesh of 100-micrometer spaces, then through a mesh of 15-micrometer spaces. Many large contaminants are thus filtered out, as well as the many groups of bacteria. Water then goes through a chamber with iodinecoated beads that kill remaining bacteria. The largest contaminants will be filtered out by the prefilter, and the least strong bacteria will be completely killed by the iodine that is located in the Lifeunit. Then it will all pass through an empty chamber, and  pass through active carbonwhich removes the iodide taste and medium-sized bacteria then finally passed from USB sucking pump. The entire process is powered by  USB powered suction system.

Upon receiving the Lifeunit for the first time, it is advised to spit out the first two forty milliliters due to not enough large amount of black carbon that may come out. This can be compared to many types of Brita filters which can have many small black carbon substances floating around after being bought straight from the store. Also, the use of the Lifeunit for the first time can be difficult because of a natural brake of the water which has been purposefully installed into the Lifeunit. Hence, the water would be best sucked out when coming out at a rate of 100 mm to 150 mm every 60 seconds in order to get the fullest potential out by killing of the parasite organisms. This natural break is important because it assists in destroying parasitic organisms which can be detrimental to the human health.

We believes that education is an important part of a successful distribution campaign. The individuals in the community need to be educated on how waterborne diseases are transmitted, and how Lifeunit can be used correctly and appropriately in order to avoid and prevent these waterborne diseases. Many of these people do not even know that there is clean water available, they are not aware of their water conditions. Through Lifeunit, these people will at least learn to differentiate between clean and dirty water and to drink safer water.

Lifeunit can be especially important for people who are suffering from two main health conditions. One type of health condition is Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) because people with HIV have weakened immune systems, and they are much more susceptible to getting waterborne illnesses and other infectious diseases. The other type of health condition is Diarrhea. Diarrhea is one of the top causes of death children who suffer from Human Immunodeficiency Virus. In the African nation of Uganda, a study showed that the use of safe drinking water had diminished the number of diarrheal illnesses by 36%. 

LifeUnit Specifications