Another water sterilisation option? Colloidal Silver (CS)

I had a very interesting meeting yesterday morning (18/4/11) with Lindsay Smith who is working for World Health Alliance International to broaden the market for SilverDYNE from beyond its use today in disaster relief situations.

SilverDYNE is a silver-based product that sterlises water at the point of use. One 30ml bottle is enough to sterilise the drinking water requirements of one person for 18 months. Coincidentally a 30ml bottle also fits rather neatly into an AidPod. You could get seven bottles in an AidPod with about 20mm to spare. See the images above.

One of the issues with this product is that to the layperson it verges on the ‘too good to be true’. There is a significant discussion about it on Changemakers.

Another issue is that it is often very difficult to get new processes adopted for water purification. We know this from our experience trying to broaden the use of SODIS in the ColaLife Zambian pilot. There is a view that so much has been done to promote Chlorine as a ‘point of use’ solution that to introduce an alternative would be confusing and counter productive.

SilverDYNE has been approved for use in many countries around the world. So far Uganda, Kenya have approved its use in Africa. SilverDYNE is manufactured in the US. Case studies and testimonials on its use are available from WHA on request. Email: charles.veach@whaintl.com

In line with our principle of ‘local determination’ we will be guided by the views of local experts on whether SilverDYNE should be included in an AidPod in countries that have approved its use. It is interesting that Uganda is one of the countries where the use of SilverDYNE is approved, given the work underway there by our friends at WeCan Ugan.

Anyway, I was able to try some water treated with a couple of drops of SilverDYNE. We used tap water. It tasted very pure with no taste of chlorine (or anything else). The experience reminded me of the first time I tasted water from a Brita water filter.