Water Filtration for Disaster Relief

The Problem

Your community in rural Missouri has been hit by a strong tornado and has severely damaged all water and power infrastructure in the area.  There is a muddy stream that runs through the center of your community, and this is the only source of water you have access to.  You and your community need to survive off this water for drinking and cooking until further aid can be provided.

Technical Aspect

Using the materials available to you, develop a simple water filtration system that can eliminate both larger contaminants such as rocks and grit as well as smaller contaminants such as bacteria and pathogens.  You will also need to consider both separation efficiency and flow rate to measure the quality and the production rate, respectively, of the filtered water.  There are many different filter assemblies to optimize for both variables, but you want to consider adaptability of the filter to match varying severities of water contamination.

Human Aspect

The community is holding a town hall-style meeting to decide what to do about the water situation.  Not all households are well-educated in STEM topics, and you want to make sure that the system you propose is easy to use and easy to develop/maintain.  There are several different households proposing their own unique and efficient water filtration systems, and your household desperately needs the sweatshirts and water bottles from The WPI Bookstore that will be awarded to the household with the best proposal.

Consider add-ons!  What else in the household (that isn’t available) can be used to better filter or disinfect contaminated water?

The Pitch:

Use the materials provided to develop a working prototype and a 60-second pitch to convince your fellow neighbors that you have a unique and effective water filtration system.  Your neighbors care about the following:

• Rate of production
• Quality of water
• Ease of construction and operation
• Cost of materials

Materials Provided