The first is the little-known fact that that typhoid and salmonella are the same disease; just different terms for different continents.

The second is that Lifestraw is an amazing piece of technology that has saved thousands of lives and hats off to Vestergaard Frandsen for the design. It’s has amazing applications in emergency relief settings where the ability to instantly reach tens of thousands of individuals is critical for survival. The one organization I worked for purchased containers of these for tsunami relief along with millions of P&G’s PUR Sachets which are another great water purification technology for emergency relief situations.

The third thought is that people often confuse relief work with development work. Development requires sustainable solutions that can be implemented at the local level. With a one/two-year lifespan on a filter, who is going to export these and pass them out to millions of impoverished people year after year? It creates a hand-out mentality and dependency (similar to the welfare trap in the USA). In a development setting, technology should empower communities towards self-reliance. Technologies like the BioSand Filter can be built right in a community and passed on down to grandchildren. That’s sustainability, and that empowers local people with the ability to take charge of their own futures.

On the flip side, the Biosand Filter weighs 300lbs and is made from concrete… it’s not applicable to emergency relief. The lifestraw is and it’s amazing for what it accomplishes. Each has their place and but it requires knowledge of the context and understanding of the long-term consequences to determine the right technology for the right circumstances. There are lots of things that exacerbate poverty, but mostly though, poverty is about building hope and self confidence and changing perceptions of ones-self. If it were just about technology we would have solved poverty a long time ago.