Anyone Else Never Heard of Lifesaver Bottles?

[FreakyTy]

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pritchard_invents_a_water_filter.html

This is a video of a TED talk (It’s a pretty cool website) about a water purification bottle. Apparently they are being used in Africa to help fight against dehydration by providing instant clean drinking water. I watched this at school today and thought it would be cool to share and get some opinions on.

Here’s a link to one on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Lifesaver-Bottle-6000-Ultra-Filtration/dp/B001EHF99K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366069115&sr=8-1&keywords=lifesaver+bottle+6000

Personally I think that they are just too expensive, I understand there need to make money and all, but for conventional at home use this is pretty steep. You have to buy replacement filters too so that’s another added expense. Although like stated in the video I think there should be no problem for governments to pay for considering how much they already spend on foreign aid. The U.S. last year spent around $50,000,000,000 (That’s billions) on foreign aid alone… According to the date on Amazon these bottles have been around for five years now, so why haven’t I heard of them until today?

Thoughts and opinions?

[DOOM!]

I don't like the guy; I can see through his brittish, philanthropic prose. Why doesn't he just build a pump that filters water for a whole village that costs less than a thousand bottles?

[FreakyTy]

I don't like the guy; I can see through his brittish, philanthropic prose. Why doesn't he just build a pump that filters water for a whole village that costs less than a thousand bottles?

I'm going to assume you meant less than a thousand dollars...

They are actually pretty cheap considering their purpose, but that's only on a large scale budget when you plan on buying tons of them. As I stated I agree they are expensive otherwise though. 250 dollars is a massive amount of money for a water filter. Still I'm surprised I haven't heard more about these things before now.

[elisaelisa]

Im thinking thats exact5ly the reason why you havent heard of it. A guy can advertise hes product, but that does not mean it is the best solution out there. These water purifying bottles are not a long-term sustainable solution to a problem.
In the end of the day, its just a filter bottle. It isnt just clean water that is problem in many areas, but water alltogether. To fight these problems, that would not be a solution.
Yes, if that project would take off, it would make the guy rich. But that would be it's only purpose. To build an actual future for these countries, you need a long-term solution that would cater larger amount of people for lesser amount of expences. Also, even these bottles have a life-expectancy that is never as long as well's system with water cleaning facilities.

So yeah... sorry i was explaining bad way probably. But the bottom line is that you havent heard of it before because it isnt good enough idea to be sustainable solution to a huge problem.

[FreakyTy]

Im thinking thats exact5ly the reason why you havent heard of it. A guy can advertise hes product, but that does not mean it is the best solution out there. These water purifying bottles are not a long-term sustainable solution to a problem.
In the end of the day, its just a filter bottle. It isnt just clean water that is problem in many areas, but water alltogether. To fight these problems, that would not be a solution.
Yes, if that project would take off, it would make the guy rich. But that would be it's only purpose. To build an actual future for these countries, you need a long-term solution that would cater larger amount of people for lesser amount of expences. Also, even these bottles have a life-expectancy that is never as long as well's system with water cleaning facilities.

So yeah... sorry i was explaining bad way probably. But the bottom line is that you havent heard of it before because it isnt good enough idea to be sustainable solution to a huge problem.

No the way you explained it makes perfect sense, don't fret.

The way I see it is that even if it was only a thing he designed to get rich it still can help, pretty well at that. I'll see how good these things work in a few days though, the teacher that showed us the video ordered one yesterday. I'm not completely supporting the guy but even a temporary solution that can save a few hundred thousand lives maybe even millions in the short term is still a very worthy investment. If nothing else it buys them more time to come up with a better product/solution.