The context
	The design story
	Production
	Product analysis: Cellopore sachets
	Are Cellopore sachets sustainable?
	Activities
	Further Information
	Country: Switzerland

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Purifying water

water

The context

If a flood hit your community, what do you think people would need most urgently?

Perhaps surprisingly, one of the most serious problems is a lack of clean water. When floodwater contaminates water supplies, people are left drinking dirty water. This causes diarrhoea, which kills 2.5 million children each year in refugee camps and disaster areas. To make matters worse, the floodwater is often infected with other life-threatening diseases such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery.

As soon as disaster strikes, emergency relief organisations need to make sure that people have water that is safe to drink. Transporting massive amounts of water isn't practical - instead, relief organisations need a method of purifying water that:

• is light and cheap to transport
• can be installed quickly into a disaster area
• can be used without chemicals or fuel.

This case study looks at how a new product is revolutionising the task of trying to get clean water to people in disaster areas.