LifeStraw^® Community in Schools

• Many schools in developing countries don’t have access to safe drinking water.
• LifeStraw® Community is ideal as a safe drinking water component in school-based WASH programs.
• Four taps allow children to access water at high volumes.
• Can reduce school absenteeism by preventing children from getting waterborne disease.
• Children can be strong advocates of safe water and hygiene at home to their parents when they learn it at school.
• Availability of clean water can motivate parents to send their children to school.

LifeStraw^® Community at Health Facilities

• Safe drinking water is vital in health facilities for:
  • Administering medicines
  • Hand washing facilities
  • Safe handling and removal of feces
  • Personal hygiene
• Millions of preventable infections occur every year within the health care environment because of inadequate attention to WASH.
• Patients with HIV/AIDS need water treatment that can prevent cryptosporidiosis, which has developed a resistance to chlorine. 

LifeStraw^® Community in Workplaces

• Many workers don’t have access to safe drinking water during work hours.
• Workers who have access to safe water can experience increased productivity by staying hydrated and remaining healthy.
• Workers with access to safe water can decrease their absences from work due to waterborne illnesses.

LifeStraw® Community in Community Dining Spaces

• Improves nutrition by preventing loss of vital nutrients due to diarrhea and water-related illness.
• Helps prevent stunted growth and malnutrition in children who are particularly vulnerable to waterborne illness.
• Helps improve the productivity of school children and workers by reducing absenteeism from sicknesses related to diarrhea and other waterborne diseases.
• Contributes to economic development of the community through increased productivity of workers and income saved from avoidance of clinic expenditures.

1. 25 litres of untreated water is poured into the top of the unit, also called the dirty water container.
2. The pre-filter removes coarse particles larger than 80 microns.
3. The ultrafiltration hollow-fibre membrane cartridge, located inside the main dark blue body of the filter, then stops all turbidity particles and pathogens larger than 20 nanometres (including all bacteria, viruses and protozoan cysts). Particles and microbes larger than 20 nanometres stay on the dirty side of the membrane and clean/purified water passes through the membrane.
4. Purified water can be collected from any of the four taps.
5. The backwashing handle allows semi-automatic backwashing; when it is pulled down and released, pathogens and dust particles on the dirty side of the membrane are lifted by backpressure and then flushed out into the red backwash container.

NOTE: Water from the red container should never be consumed.

Protection

• Hollow fibre filtration technology converts contaminated water into safe drinking water
• Removes a minimum of 99.9999% of bacteria, 99.999 % of viruses and 99.99% of protozoan cysts
• Meets the standard for the “highly protective” category of household water treatment options by the World Health Organization and complies with US EPA guidelines for microbiological water purifiers

Capacity

• 25 litre dirty water tank and 25 litre safe storage tank: total capacity of 50 litres
• Filtration rate: 12 litres/hour

Lifetime

• Can purify between 70,000 -100,000* litres of water, enough to serve community settings for several years

Design Features

• Chemical-free
• Made of durable plastic
• Doesn’t require electrical power or batteries

*Based on a turbidity level of 4-5NTU, under laboratory conditions.

• International Standards

• Laboratory Studies

• Field Studies

In 2014, Vestergaard launched the LifeStraw® Follow the Liters program to harness the power of consumers to make an impact. Under this program, for each consumer purchase of a LifeStraw® product, one school child in a developing country is provided with safe water for an entire year. This is made possible because a portion of the funds from sales is used to supply LifeStraw® Community water purifiers to the schools. 

LifeStraw® Follow the Liters was launched in Kenya in October. Over a two-week period, more than 1,600 LifeStraw® Community water purifiers were distributed to 301 schools to provide more than 23 million liters of safe water a year to over 125,000 school children throughout Kenya’s western province.