Overview: The Challenge of Clean Water
One of the biggest challenges for many developing countries is finding good sources of clean water to help a growing population. It is very common for people to travel many miles every day to find something that for many of us in the United States and Canada is as easy as turning on a tap. Scientists have applied technology in innovative ways to find ways to disinfect water that are relatively inexpensive, easy to use, and reliable. Some of these applications include banana peels, special tablets, and nanotechnology.
Banana Peels in Water Purifiers?
Some expensive materials are often used to purify water around the world, and some of the elements that are used are hazardous themselves when released into the environment. Scientists have been experimenting with many different things to find a better alternative. Chopped banana peels have been successfully used as filler in water purifiers in Brazil. They remove metals, such as lead from streams and other waterways polluted from mining and other industries, and don’t require anything special to make them work.
Tablets to Clean Water
Other scientists have developed special filtering tablets that can be used in places where it’s difficult to get to clean drinking water, such as in parts of Africa. Factories have been built in countries where they will be used, to also provide good jobs for people who live there. The tablets are made of ceramic and coated with metals such as silver or copper. They can be put inside a container for holding polluted water. When contaminated water is poured into the container over the tablet, it is cleaned and drinkable.
Nanotechnology Builds Water Filters
Tiny tubes made of carbon, called nanotubes, many billion times thinner than one strand of hair, are being developed in India, as technology for use in water filters. (They are not science fiction, even though it sounds like something developed by the Borg from Star Trek.) They are tiny enough that water molecules will slide through them, but heavier and larger molecules of metal, parasites, and other wastes will not. Carbon is cheap and easy to transport, even though the nanotubes are much smaller than pencil lead, so scientists think they will be more useful than most filters using other types of materials.
The Science of Clean Drinking Water
The shortage of clean drinking water is a problem that is faced around the developing world, made worse by pollution and global warming. Plants and animals, including human beings, need water to survive, but it is becoming more and more difficult to find it as the population grows. New technologies, including those using banana peels, water tablets, and nanotechnology, help to clean pollutants, parasites, and chemical wastes.
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