Clean drinking water for all?

Whilst enjoying all the yummy goodness of 5th Elements Tapas menu with friends last night, Lib decided to share a little more than the last herb crumbed goats brie with me. She (and subsequently myself) has become hooked on a website titled TED: Ideas worth spreading. Now I would have liked to have thought I was reasonably up to date on developments which could enhance AID work; especially ones which could potentially allow the meeting of one of the UN's Millennium Development goals - and yet I had completely missed the ball on this one (lets blame it on a year upheaval, uncertainty and travel!) For those who are interested check out this potentially revolutionising invention by Michael Pritchard which turns filthy water into drinking water! It's titled the Lifesaver water-purification bottle.



While granted there are a few flaws in Michael's argument re: money already being spent on Aid; I'm not really interested in opening a debate on that. I am interested in hearing if anyone has seen these devices being used in the field, or if you have heard of any drawbacks to the system. And if not, why the hell are Governments and NGO's not distributing them, especially to agencies working in disaster zones?