Many different foreign materials and contaminates make their way into our waterways. In developing countries, the absence of a water treatment infrastructure poses great danger to the people and to the ecosystem. in this activity, we are going to add different pollutants to our water and experience the ease or difficulty in removing these items by using different kinds of filters.

Thinking Out of the Box...

Bangladesh: Old saris are the key to cleaner, safer water
Source: SPLASH! Newsletter, WaterYear 2003

The number of cholera cases in remote Bangladeshi villages was halved when local women poured drinking water, collected from rivers and ponds, through their old saris. The folded saris trapped more than 99 percent of the cholera causing bacteria which, although tiny, attached itself to plankton to big to squeeze through the pores in the fabric. Tens of thousands of people die every year from dehydration causes by cholera induced diarrhoea and many lives could be saved by filtering water in this way.