Ultra Violet Waterworks Water Disinfecting Device Saves Lives
Resources with Additional Information
Ultra Violet Waterworks (UVW) is a small-scale, energy-efficient, and low-maintenance
mechanism that uses ultraviolet light to cheaply disinfect water. It is a uniquely
effective device that operates using the equivalent of a 60-Watt light bulb
at a cost of as low as 4 cents/ton of water treated, treating 15 liters/minute,
and providing enough drinking water for 5001500 people. As a result,
UVW is the first practical means of providing many communities in developing
nations with readily accessible, disinfected, safe drinking water.
UV Waterworks
is a water purification system that disinfects surface- or ground-water of
the viruses and bacteria that cause cholera, typhoid, dysentery and other deadly
diarrheal diseases that kill millions of people in poor, developing nations.
It is effective on all water-borne bacteria and viruses, can be used universally,
is inexpensive to buy and operate, is simple to use, and works with the flow
from a standard hand pump. It uses 6,000 times less energy than boiling and
has no effect on the taste or the smell of water.
UV Waterworks was developed at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, and received both the Discover and Popular Science 1996 awards for innovations.
Additional information about Ultra Violet Waterworks (UVW) is available in a full-text DOE report and on the Web.
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Ultra Violet Waterworks (UVW) Web pages:
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