LifeStraw: Science and Technology
LifeStraw is a product developed by the Swiss company Vestergaard Frandsen, which consists of a water filter that removes 99.99% of waterborne bacteria, protozoan parasites and viruses, allowing the user to obtain clean drinking water directly from containers, streams, lakes or other sources of potentially contaminated water.
The Oxford Dictionary defines science as the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. In order to develop the LifeStraw, scientific experiments were conducted to understand the process of water purification and develop an innovative method to convert contaminated water into clean and safe water for human consumption. These studies and experiments led to the development of the actual product, which is how the definition of technology applies to LifeStraw, given that technology is defined as the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes (Oxford).
According to Vestergaard (2016), LifeStraw uses advanced hollow fiber technology to filter water, which is a highly efficient method as it does not require chemicals, and traps bacteria as well as other contaminants effectively, thus making the tube’s output clean water. LifeStraw is marketed in different presentations: the individual tube (portable and weighs only two ounces), which can filter up to 1000 liters of water; the family presentation that has a larger volume and can filter up to 18000 liters of water, which is approximately the water consumption of a family of 5 members for 3 years, and the presentation for communities. There also a “to-go” version of the product, which incorporate the straw technology into a bottle suitable for hikers or campers.
LifeStraw Carbon for Water Program in Kenya
The LifeStraw Carbon for Water Program in Kenya is an initiative by the Vestergaard Corporation that aims to supply approximately 900,000 LifeStraw Family filters, at no cost, to households in the Western Province of Kenya, which represents an approximate 90% of all homes that lack access to potable water (Vestergaard). The program seeks to maintain the costs of repair and replacement of the provided units for 10 years, which begun in 2011.
According to Statista (2014), approximately 750 million people across the globe do not have access to clean drinking water, and The World Bank (2016) indicates that only 57% of the Kenyan population in rural areas has access to it. Lack of clean water is responsible for the spread of diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery and parasitic worms. World Health Organization statistics indicate that diarrhea killed over 2.5 million people in 2008, most of them children in developing countries (in Kenya, diarrhea is the third leading cause of death among children and adults). Moreover, women and children in countries where clean water is a luxury, spend several hours of their day fetching water from the closest sources. In consideration, the main purpose of the LifeStraw Carbon for Water Program in Kenya is to provide the means to access clean drinking water as an effort to reduce the spread of water-quality related diseases, thus improving the quality of life for the people of Kenya. As precedent, Elsanousi, Abdelrahman, Elshiekh, Elhadi, Mohamadani and others (2009), studied the effects of the use of LifeStraw technology in a settlement camp in Sudan. According to this study, from a group of 647 subjects, 15.3% of the participants reported cases of diarrhea in the two weeks prior to the use of the product, compared to only 2.3% after its implementation, which led the researchers to the conclusion that “these devices are the answer to the provision of safe drinking water in the African setting”.
The Vestergaard Corporation undertakes the cost of the program’s implementation in its entirety, with a reported initial investment of $30 million dollars. Though it can be considered a charity project given that the recipients of the LifeStraw Family units do not have to pay for the product, its repairing or replacement for 10 years, it is not a non-profit project. The company expects to profit from the distribution of the units through the sale of carbon credits. According to Yuvika (2011), “one carbon credit allows one ton of carbon dioxide or a corresponding amount of other greenhouse gases to be discharged in the air”. The establishment of this unit has created a market of carbon trading, in which companies that perform actions that are proven to prevent carbon dioxide emissions receive carbon credits, and can sell them to companies that have exceeded their quota of emissions. Following this scheme, the implementation of this program obtains carbon credits as it reduces greenhouse gases emissions derived from domestic water boiling in the region (using mostly wood or coal as fuel), which is no longer needed in households where a LifeStraw Family is used. Moreover, the company also earns credits through the calculation of the suppressed demand of water boiling (households that do not boil water but would do so if they had the necessary resources).
One of the major obstacles in the implementation of this program is training the recipients to properly use the LifeStraw Family, as its functioning is not necessarily understood by logic alone. A study conducted by De Ver Dye, Apondi, Lugada, Khan, Sandiford and DasBanerjee (2011) indicates that approximately 15% of the participants who were provided with the technology discontinued its use for reasons of perceived inconvenience, operational or adaption difficulties. This serves as evidence that providing the tool to families does not necessarily signify that they will all drink safe water, as some may disregard the product and continue to drink contaminated water.
The ethical effects from the implementation of this program for the people are positive, as thousands of low-income families will benefit, at no cost, from a product that in developed countries retails for up to $90.00 and will subsequently have access to potable water. However, there are doubts regarding the ethics of the company: boiling water statistics in Kenya are scarce and based only on small-scale surveys, therefore the company may be profiting from carbon credit trading even though the program may not significantly reduce greenhouse gases emissions under real-life conditions. Further studies and surveys must be conducted to clear these doubts. The effects on social interactions are also positive, as lack of access to clean water and sanitation services, affects daily life in regards to work burden, safety, education and equity of women (National Academy of Sciences). As for the economic effects, there are several studies that establish a retroactive relation between access to clean water and economic development. According to Bloom and Canning (2008), clean water and sanitation are related to better health prospects, subsequently affecting education, medical care and work opportunities.
As previously mentioned, having access to this technology without understanding the reasoning behind its creation as well as its functioning may render the product useless. Surveys concluded that lack of knowledge on the relation between water and health is one of the factors that lead to users discarding the LifeStraw Family, which is the reason why the company has a team of educators working on the field to create awareness on the issue and thus promoting the continuous use of the device.
Having studied the concept of the LifeStraw family, its advantages and disadvantages, as well as operational difficulties, I would promote the further development of the product to allow for faster water filtration, as some users have complained that, even though it has a flow rate of 9-12 liters per hour, this is in some cases slow for the intended application.
References
Bloom, D., & Canning, D. (2008). Population Health and Economic Growth. The World Bank, Australian Government, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Washington: Commission on Growth and Development.
De Ver Dye, T., Apondi, R., Lugada, E., Khan, J., Sandiford, M. A., & DasBanerjee, T. (2011). A Qualitative Assessment of Beliefs, Attitudes, and Behaviors Related to Diarrhea and Water Filtration in Rural Kenya. American Journal of Public Health, 1515-1520.
Elsanousi, S., Abdelrahman, S., Elshiekh, I., Elhadi, M., Mohamadani, A., Habour, A., . . . Hunter, P. (2009, September). A study of the use and impacts of LifeStraw™ in a settlement camp in southern Gezira, Sudan. Journal of Water and Health of the World Health Organization, pp. 478-483.
Fogden, J., & Wood, G. (2009). Access to Safe Drinking Water and Its Impact on Global Economic Growth. London: HaloSource, Inc.
National Academies of Sciences. (2009). Global Issues in Water, Sanitation and Health. Washington: Institute of Medicine (US) Forum on Microbial Threats.
Oxford Dictionaries. (n.d.). Science. Retrieved from Oxford Online Dictionaries: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/
Vestergaard Corporation. (2016). LifeStraw® Carbon For Water Program Launched in Kenya. Retrieved from Vestergaard Website: http://www.vestergaard.com/fr/2014-09-12-18-30-57/communiques-de-presse/item/lifestraw-carbon-for-water-program-launched-in-kenya-2
Walters, A. (2008). A Performance Evaluation of the LifeStraw: A Personal Point of Use of Water Purifier for the Developing World. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Yukiva, G. (2011). Carbon Credit: A Step Towards Green Environment. Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 17-20.
