Ratan Tata was once inspired to build a cheap car when he saw a family of four balanced on a bicycle in his native India. Now that the Tata Nano “people’s car” is a reality, the business tycoon has unveiled an even more useful product for India and the world. Globally, over a billion people do not have daily access to safe drinking water. The types of water delivery systems we use are prohibitively expensive for many countries. Around 380,000 children in India alone will die this year from diarrhea, mainly caused by the water they consume. An estimated 85% of people in India do not filter their water before drinking. If there were some way to make filtering easy and affordable for them, it would prevent many cases of illness due to waterborne pathogens.
Tata Chemicals, a division of Ratan Tata’s business empire, has unveiled their latest gadget, a water filter called the Tata Swach. The technology isn’t all that complicated. The Tata Swach uses rice husk ash (a product very abundant in India) coated with silver nanoparticles to filter microbes from the water. Rice husk ash has been used for centuries to clean teeth. Now it can clean water to be used for cleaning teeth. The advantages of the Tata Swach include the fact that it needs no electricity. India has 400 million people who are not connected to the electrical grid, and those tend to be the same people who aren’t served by a water system. The Tata Swach unit hold 9.5 liters at a time and will clean 3,000 liters of water on one filter cartridge, enough to last a family of five about a month.
The Tata Swach will sell for about £10 each, or a thousand rupees. Replacement filters will be about 30 rupees.
See also: LifeStraw
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You go, boy! We need more of these guys in the world.
posted by Molly on 12-14-2009 at 1:07 pm
Okay, but what happens when these people fail to change the filter? I let a Brita filter go too long at work once and started getting green water out of the filter – some sort of mold or microbial growth. I think it’s quite likely that the poor and uneducated would be very likely to forego buying new filter cartridges.
Great system that makes brilliant use of sustainable resources, but there could be unintended consequences on the delivery side. Maybe the nano-silver will prevent the mold and microbe problem.
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 12-14-2009 at 1:31 pm
According to the linked information, the water will stop flowing when the cartridge needs to be changed.
posted by Miss Cellania on 12-14-2009 at 2:00 pm
1000r + 30(12)r for the first year. I hope the people who need it can afford it. GBP 10 isn’t a lot for those in GB, but when GBP 1 is enough to feed a povertous Indian family for a week……
posted by Bakedpotatoes on 12-14-2009 at 4:21 pm
You raise a good point, PD, but I would hazard a guess that the alternative to moldy-filter water: human-sewage water – is probably still unhealthier.
posted by Peach on 12-15-2009 at 1:40 am
Dont wanna nitpick ,but hey this is mental floss, Ratan Tata was inspired to develop the Nano after seeing a family of four on a scooter(on a rainy day – accounts vary), which is a pretty common sight in India.
posted by George on 12-15-2009 at 2:17 am