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Water for Life Launches Campaign to Bring Sustainable Water Filters to Developing Countries

A 2010 report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF estimated that four out of every 10 people in the world, particularly those in Africa and Asia, do not have clean water to drink, and according to Green Cross International, roughly 3,000 children die each day as a result of diseases caused by ingestion of filthy water.

By Sustainable Brands | Published 10 years ago | About a 3 minute read

A 2010 report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF estimated that four out of every 10 people in the world, particularly those in Africa and Asia, do not have clean water to drink, and according to Green Cross International, roughly 3,000 children die each day as a result of diseases caused by ingestion of filthy water.

This week, non-profit Water For Life launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds and awareness to support its mission to bring sustainable water filters to families, schools, orphanages and villages in need in developing countries.

For the campaign, Water For Life has partnered with water-filtration experts Sawyer to provide supporters with Personal MINI water filters along with Family filters to needy families in the developing world. The campaign reached its initial goal of $25,000, needed to deliver 500 filters to Cambodia, in its first few days; with almost $32,000 in contributions and 35 days left in the campaign, Water For Life is now aiming to secure additional funds to send filters to Kenya and India.

The Personal MINI filters available through the campaign are perfect for hiking, camping, traveling and for emergency use during natural disasters. These are the lightest, smallest and most efficient water filters on the planet. Each Personal MINI filter can purify up to 100,000 gallons of clean drinking water from any freshwater lake, river or stream, filtering out 99.9 percent of water-borne diseases.

A single Family filter has the same filter technology as the MINI with the capability of purifying 150 gallons of water per day for up to 10 years, also removing 99.9 percent of water-borne diseases.

"Clean water is a basic human need, but not available to 1.4 billion people around the world," says Water for Life founder Rudy Shaffer. "I have traveled to many countries where children are in desperate need of safe drinking water. This high-tech filter is a sustainable solution to supply clean, safe drinking water and directly affects the children that are dying each day from water-borne diseases. We see the immediate difference and impact in people's lives from this amazing technology."

Contributions for the campaign start at $1 to raise awareness for clean water initiatives; pledges starting at $35 send Family filters to children and families in developing countries.

Water for Life says it has already shipped over 4,000 Family filters to 16 third-world countries over the last five years. The NGO’s efforts join a growing number of those aimed at solving the issue of inequitable access to clean water — including recent ambitious commitments from global companies such as Coca-Cola and P&G, and development of new filtration technologies such as The Drinkable Book.