LightBackpacking.com

In the July 18 issue of Newsweek is an article about LifeStraw, a new $3 portable water filter created by a Danish company to protect people in Third World countries from waterborne diseases like typhoid, cholera and dysentery.

The LifeStraw website notes: “Sharing a passion to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of ‘reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water’ by the year 2015, we recognize the immense sense of urgency. At any given moment, about half of the world’s poor are suffering from water-related diseases, of which over 6,000 – mainly children – die each day by consuming unsafe drinking water.”

The device is 31 cm / 12-inches long and weighs 140 grams / 4.9 ounces dry and 160 grams / 5.6 ounces web. It requires no parts or maintenance while producing up to 185 gallons of before replacement is needed.

While its humanitarian value is what is most important (an the main focus of the company), the article does note that LifeStraw is working to create a version for backpackers, which will fix one current failing: it doesn’t filter out Giardia lamblia.

It appears to be a great future choice for ultra light backpacking, hiking or camping. A note: I couldn’t find any place on the website to buy one. But you can make a donation and buy the devices for poor people in other parts of the world.

Be light. Be safe. Be one with the pack.