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The LifeStraw® is a major
engineering feat that has saved millions of lives, yet few know about it. TheLifeStraw® is an inexpensive water bottle that doubles as a water purifier
(that lasts for about 1000 liters) and “provide[s] access to safe drinking
water by converting microbiologically contaminated water into safe drinking
water,” says buylifestraw.com. Obviously, the website’s main purpose is to sell
the LifeStraw®, and may be a bit biased. However, upon further research, I find
that many people support the use of this technology. I’m not interested in
selling you this product; I’m more interested in the necessity of it in the
first place.
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| Young Children using the Lifestraw |
The LifeStraw®
is made so people, mainly the very poor, can drink water safely with a
reduction in disease transferred by unclean water. The idea started as a
humanitarian movement advocating for third world countries to have the right to
clean drinking water. I find it both interesting and incredibly depressing that
having clean water has been a major issue for citizens that live in
underdeveloped countries. However, it’s almost an undeniable fact that those
who live in poverty are forced to experience the rest of the world’s mistakes,
pollution-wise. This includes unclean water, air pollution, and simply
mistreatment from other countries. However, since most people don’t live in
poverty and thus the terrible conditions that come with it, they are ignorant
to the issues, or don’t care. The significant social inequality has quite
literally blinded us from the fact that some people need this product to live.
For the rest of the world, the LifeStraw® is simply a cool little gadget that
can be bought and forgotten about forever because we don’t need it. But for
people living in third world countries, owning this technology can be the
difference between life and death.
This
product can be seen as a representation of the extremes of poverty and the
destruction of the environment. It’s amazing that this product is available,
and cheap at that, but disappointing that it is needed. It is not a solution to
social inequality, nor to the destruction of the environment. The company is
banking on the fact that there are enough of both of these factors to
necessitate such an item in the first place. These people will eventually
become dependent on the technology, instead of being provided with actual means
to help their situations.
Giving Back
The
company is doing its part in humanitarian work, and states that “purchase [of]
any type of LifeStraw® product, Vestergaard and its distributor partners
contribute part of the funds to distribute LifeStraw® Community institutional
water purifiers to schools in developing countries.” This is a great idea and I
applaud the effort given to raise awareness of the issue. However, I do find
that this this work is a bit convenient. It doesn’t seem to be doing anything
to address the problem at hand; poverty and pollution seem to be major issues
in third world countries and there isn’t much being done about it. Installing
water filters in Kenyan schools is a wonderful start, but to have a deep impact
on the issue, perhaps dive a bit deeper to the source of the problem. It would
take a massive amount of effort and money, which I know is impossible for one
company.
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| Vesttergaard and its disributor partners contribute part of the finds to distributing water purifiers in schools |
The
technology used to make this product is innovative and useful. In fact, the
production and purchase of the LifeStraw® “reduces your personal carbon
footprint,” and gives you a “carbon credit…A carbon credit (or carbon offset) represents
the reduction of one ton of CO2 from our atmosphere.” So, environmentally
speaking, buying this product is great. All in all, I would recommend to buy
the product, but also do your own research into why third world countries are
facing such major issues.
Sources:
http://www.buylifestraw.com/
Sources:
http://www.buylifestraw.com/
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