Water Treatment Discussion

Marcus, Tahmeed and Vikram

1) Share your thoughts on the water crisis of your choice (in one paragraph)

After carefully revising the article “The Flint Water Crisis”, we believe that the Flint water
crisis is an important issue that could have been avoided and deserves to be acknowledged. The
municipality of Flint rushed into a temporary solution that impacted the lives of Flint citizens by
changing their water supply to the local Flint River. They did not consider the health and safety
of the citizens and did not establish a long-term solution for the problem. Everyone understands
that water is essential for human life and is needed daily. Water is required by all humans for
drinking, cleaning, bathing meaning the transfer process of the water system should have been
taken more seriously. This is severely harmful as the trihalomethanes inside their water can lead
to liver, kidney, lung, and heart problems. Due to this rush, there were over 8000 children
affected and 6000 - 12000 children who will have potential disabilities throughout their lives.
The government did not realize that there was a high amount of chloride present in the water
which removed the protective layer of phosphate ions inside the pipe and exposed the lead to
the water. To make matters worse, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency already believes
that any amount of lead is unsafe in water and exposing the water to lead can be harmful.
Despite this, they found that 90% of American homes have maximum lead contamination of 15
parts per billion (ppb). While the average Flint home has roughly 27 ppb of lead contamination
and can reach numbers up to 13,000 ppb. This issue brought a great amount of awareness to
the crisis of lead water pipes in the world. We are confused how the government is unable to
even tell people if they are at risk; instead, they are given blank stares. These people are now
constantly fearing that their bodies may break down at any time and the government is not
taking any significant action. Nobody should have to go through this physical or mental trauma
that the Flint residents went through, for a basic necessity like water. The laws placed by the
government are outdated and do not protect the citizens from future issues. It is up to future
legislative and elected members to fight for the people’s rights, in terms of the situation in Flint:
they have let the people down. The large range of the number of lead pipes still used in the
United States is unknown and that is unacceptable. Although it is illegal to manufacture lead
pipes, this law does not apply to existing pipes. People feel unsafe and are unable to trust their
municipalities because even the government cannot answer their concerns. As a group, we feel
devastated for the Flint community and believe that the government should take immediate
action towards the inflated lead contaminants in their water source. In elementary school, we
were taught that the lead in the water can become extremely damaging towards our bodies and
to shy mainly away from tap water because of the amount of lead inside it. Reading this not
only do we find it scary that lead levels would reach that high, but how the government waited
so long to take action. However, this crisis was a valuable learning experience for the entire
world. The government of the United States has pledged $80 million to help the state of
Michigan to overcome this crisis. Hopefully, other cities can learn from the mistakes made by
Flint, so they never repeat them. We must ensure that nobody experiences what the citizens of
Flint experienced ever again.

2) Research and share technologies that are being used to help people in remote areas get
access to clean water (1-2 paragraphs).

Technology is used to help people all around the world get access to clean water in
various ways. Firstly, a recent product that has gained popularity is LifeStraw. LifeStraw is a
portable drinking straw that can filter dirty water into healthy drinking water. This product is
impactful in the lives of people who do not have access to clean water because they can clean
water quickly and even carry it along with them easily. Unfortunately, LifeStraw can only hold a
small amount of water and is not sustainable for the long term. LifeStraw uses 3 filtration
processes to filter water and provide safe drinking water. The first filter is the membrane
microfilters, it is used to filter the water in a similar way to dialysis that the kidney does. The
LifeStraw contains microscopic pores that are made by straws that are 0.2 microns in diameter.
The dirty water enters through one side of the straw and the bacteria, microplastics, dirt and silt
are stopped from leaving the straw. Therefore, clean water leaves the straw. After going through
the membrane microfilters, the water goes through the Membrane ultrafilters. The membrane
ultrafilters are 10x smaller than the microfilters, having a diameter of 0.02 microns. Both the
membranes use the same mechanism but the ultrafilters have a smaller diameter which allows
the removal of viruses from the water as well. The final filtration process that the water has to
go through is Activated Carbon Filtration. Activated Carbon Filtration uses carbon that has been
treated to remove bad taste and odour to produce good taste. LifeStraw uses all of these
processes and filtration to make the dirty water healthy and safe to drink for anyone.
 Figure 1 & 2

Another great invention is the fog catcher. The fog catcher is a set of vertical nets that
function by having the fog hit the weave and water trickle downwards. This water is then
collected along with groundwater, filtered, and pumped into villages. This invention is helpful in
countries and especially mountain regions that have lots of fog and low groundwater supplies.
This technology is currently used in countries such as Peru, United States, Chile, and can
generate over 6 litres of water a day. The unfiltered water can also be used for agriculture and
washing. The cost of this product is also relatively cheap in comparison to other inventions at
only $500 and is a long-term solution. It should be noted that this invention is not effective
when it is not a foggy season and is not efficient in generating high volumes of water.

Figure 3
 The second most effective piece of technology that helps transfer clean drinking water
to remote areas is the SunSpring Hybrid (Figure 4). The SunSpring Hybrid is the world's first
polarized microbiological water purification system that can turn up to 20,000 litres of dirty
water into a clean and fresh supply daily for roughly 10 years. Although it can be quite costly at
$25,000 per hybrid, the SunSpring Hybrid can be built in any condition and has a fantastic
lifespan as previously mentioned. The only thing needed for the SunSpring Hybrid is to be built
by a nearby water source as it does not need a power supply. The SunSpring has built-in solar
panels and a wind turbine that can generate power throughout any weather conditions for the
different regions across the globe. The SunSpring can even be used in regions without electricity
and places that have had severe natural disasters or dangerous weather patterns. This is an
excellent choice because families all over the world do not have access to any form of clean
drinking water and have to rely on water sources that may not be healthy. Through research, I
found that the average Canadian uses 335 litres of water every day which comes up to one
SunSpring Hybrid helping roughly 60 people daily. An article in 2010 states that there were 17 of
these units installed in Haiti which would mean that those hybrids would need to be replaced
last year. Obviously, in these developing countries, the average user would be using much less
water as they only take what they need to survive. Thus, the SunSpring Hybrid is a great
invention that is proving to help more than 60 people a day in several countries for over a
decade while being an efficient source of water for all.

Figure 4

The final piece of technology that we will discuss today that helps bring the people of
the Earth freshwater is the process of Desalination. Desalination is the process of removing
minerals and salt from seawater to make it drinkable. This technology is extremely effective in
countries with desert climates such as Israel. The water enters semi-permeable membranes
under high pressure which stops everything except the pure water molecules from going
through. After this, chemicals are added to ensure the water is safe for drinking. It is then
distributed through pipelines to various areas. This is a large operation that is extremely
expensive however, it is a long-term solution.

Figure 5

References

(www.dw.com), D. W. (n.d.). Innovative clean water technologies: DW: 30.08.2018. DW.COM.

https://www.dw.com/en/innovative-clean-water-technologies/a-45287950.

The "Fog Catcher" Project – Peru. youthinkgreen eV. (n.d.).

http://www.youthinkgreen.org/en/projekte/the-fog-catcher-project/.

How our products work. LifeStraw Water Filters & Purifiers. (n.d.).

https://lifestraw.com/pages/how-our-products-work.

Please Enable Cookies. StackPath. (n.d.).

https://www.watertechonline.com/directory/article/15540930/innovative-water-technolog

ies-announces-release-of-sunspring-hybrid.
Schomer, S. (2012, July 30). Meet the Creators of Sunspring, a Portable, Solar,

Water-Purification System. Fast Company.

https://www.fastcompany.com/1659049/meet-creators-sunspring-portable-solar-water-pur

ification-system.

Seawater Desalination. San Diego County Water Authority. (2020, December 28).

https://www.sdcwa.org/your-water/local-water-supplies/seawater-desalination/?q=%2Fse

awater-desalination.