World Water Day 2012: Innovations for purifying water

(HN, 3/22/12) - It's World Water Day 2012 &  while today there are 7 billion people to feed on the planet, by 2050 there will be another 2 billion.  Statistics say that each of us drinks from 2 to 4 litres of water every day, but most of the water we ‘drink’ is embedded in the food we eat:  producing 1 kilo of beef for example consumes 15,000 litres of water while 1 kilo of wheat ’drinks up’ 1,500 litres.   Harnessing the bacteria naturally occurring in water & using solar energy are just 2 innovations that may help bring clean drinking water to the world's poor using cheap, green self-powered purification mechanisms such as the `microbial fuel cell system'  to make clean water more accessible by lowering the financial & environmental costs of purification.  In Angola for instance solar cells are already producing cleaner water using Canadian technology to purify drinking water inside used shipping containers.  (Read more at The Christian Science Monitor)