It is really heart warming that a doctor, Dr. Mike Meegan, has publicized a simple yet very accessible method to disinfect drinking water in Kenya.
This method is being used by the Masai tribesmen in Kenya, and it works! These people do not have access to running water, their women have to travel for hours to find a water point and then haul whatever they can find on their back to their encampement.
The method is simple: they put the water in plastic bottles, and then put these plastic bottles on the top of their huts and let the sun do its disinfecting work for four to five hours.
Officials at the local hospital have confirmed that the incidence of water-borne diseases has decreased in the area by as much as seventy percent in the last year!
Better yet, a satellite TV station, Euronews, has been airing this little clip of five minutes each day explaining this simple method and according to this same station, this method is being used now in several places in Africa. The clip also elaborates on more complex but more costly methods for the same purpose.
For Mike Meegan in Nairobi, Kenya, and for Euronews our heartfelt thanks and congratulations. You have demonstrated that a useful tip can save lives, and that people of good will can publicize these tips to make them available worldwide. Please carry on, maybe others will follow suite.
We, in the third world, can recognize valor, even if it’s wearing a simple white coat.
