Stanford University scientists have just come up with a new powder that could completely revolutionize people’s access to clean drinking water throughout the world.
The powder almost instantly kills thousands of waterborne bacteria when simply mixed with water and exposed to normal sunlight for a few seconds.
The powder has several advantages over existing methods of cleaning drinking water. It does not use any chemicals that create lasting toxic byproducts, and it does not require ultraviolet light, which takes a long time and requires electricity, according to Phys.org.
In addition, and somewhat remarkably, the powder can be used many times. It can be removed from the now-clean water with a magnet, and researchers were able to reuse the same powder 30 times.
This could be a real game-changer for more than a quarter of the world's population that does not currently have access to clean drinking water, according to a recent UN World Water Development Report.
This cheap, non-toxic, recyclable water-cleaning powder could make a big difference if it can be produced and distributed at scale.
For those of us lucky to be living with clean, drinking water but who like to explore, there are also benefits. “For hikers and backpackers, I could envision carrying a tiny amount of powder and a small magnet,” one of its inventors said. “During the day you put the powder in water, shake it up a little bit under sunlight and within a minute you have drinkable water.”