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Silver in Pot (SIP) Method
Infant mortality rates are some of the highest in India and other south Asian countries and a major cause of this is polluted water primarily for drinking and some for washing hands before meals, mouth wash, washing fruits and vegetables that are eaten raw. With increasing population, pollution of water bodies has increased. Use of outdoors as toilets has increased such pollution. As a result drinking water has become less than healthy in most areas. While the rich are able to use expensive devices to purify the water, the poor manage without any. For some, even boiling and cooling water for drinking is too expensive or too time consuming. The result is that health of all suffers and when it comes to the most vulnerable – infants and children - many die as a result of it.
Infant mortality rates are some of the highest in India and other south Asian countries and a major cause of this is polluted water primarily for drinking and some for washing hands before meals, mouth wash, washing fruits and vegetables that are eaten raw. With increasing population, pollution of water bodies has increased. Use of outdoors as toilets has increased such pollution. As a result drinking water has become less than healthy in most areas. While the rich are able to use expensive devices to purify the water, the poor manage without any. For some, even boiling and cooling water for drinking is too expensive or too time consuming. The result is that health of all suffers and when it comes to the most vulnerable – infants and children - many die as a result of it.
While an effort is needed on many fronts to improve the
quality of water; some of these being, stopping the practice of using outdoors
as toilet, banning use of insecticides, banning harmful industrial wastes from
being dumped in rivers, there is one more idea given here that is likely to
produce immediate results with virtually no effort.
The idea is not new in the sense that it has been used by
human civilizations in different parts of the world at different times but it
shall be new now for South Asia. It can be
used in any home where the following two conditions exist:
- Drinking water is stored in a pot or vessel
- There is a silver ornament at home or one that can be procured by the home owner.
Since the two conditions are met by more than 90 percent of
poor and rural homes in India,
the method proposed here can be used easily – Just scrub wash the silver ornament or
piece with clean water (lime juice may be used as help) and place it in the drinking water pot. The presence of
silver in water works silently to kill many harmful microbes that are found in
water. How this works has been explained in another note here:
Copper appears to have a similar effect but much use of copper may be toxic. A silver plated copper piece will however work fine too. Please do not remove and clean the silver piece every time the water is changed or refilled. Just leave it in the pot and scrub clean once every month or so only to remove any possible deposits that may obstruct contact of metal with water..
The method proposed here can be combined with the traditional three pot method for further gain if water available is murky too. The three pot method consists of placing three clay pots one above the other on a stand. The upper two have a hole for water to drip below and the middle one is filled with clean sand. Fresh water is filled in the top pot and clarified water collects in the lowest one. While this method improves water it cannot kill all the pathogens. Silver is likely to do the trick.
However while silver may destroy harmful microbes it cannot destroy harmful insecticides/pesticides in water. The simplest way to get rid of this menace is to simply ban most of them, while making few very expensive through penalizing tax as with tobacco and alcohol to minimize their usage.
The method proposed here can be combined with the traditional three pot method for further gain if water available is murky too. The three pot method consists of placing three clay pots one above the other on a stand. The upper two have a hole for water to drip below and the middle one is filled with clean sand. Fresh water is filled in the top pot and clarified water collects in the lowest one. While this method improves water it cannot kill all the pathogens. Silver is likely to do the trick.
However while silver may destroy harmful microbes it cannot destroy harmful insecticides/pesticides in water. The simplest way to get rid of this menace is to simply ban most of them, while making few very expensive through penalizing tax as with tobacco and alcohol to minimize their usage.
Just choose a silver object that is not so small that it may
be lost in the drain and be swallowed by mistake on a dark night and place the
pot in a place safe from robbers if any are there in the area. The silver ornament need not be a heavy or large one but the more surface area there is for water to touch the better.
Help is needed from researchers to test this method, develop more precise specifications
and publicize the practice widely.
The SIP Method helps improve the health of all while reducing chances of the most vulnerable losing lives due to water borne diseases.
Further Reading:
See this note for various waterborne diseases as well as various methods used to remove them
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellowbook/2014/chapter-2-the-pre-travel-consultation/water-disinfection-for-travelers
PRECAUTION
The present method is based on traditional knowledge. It
does not appear to have undergone modern scientific validation yet. Therefore
any other existing method that is being used by the household to ensure good
quality drinking water should not be given up pending such validation, rather the
SIP method may be used in addition to any other practice used to purify water.
Further Reading:
See this note for various waterborne diseases as well as various methods used to remove them
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellowbook/2014/chapter-2-the-pre-travel-consultation/water-disinfection-for-travelers
Note for Scientists
The following method may be used for testing the efficacy of
silver metal piece placed in water. Take two identical glass beakers sterilized
in identical condition. Place a silver piece in one of them then fill both with
infected water containing for example E. coli or other common water bacterial and
viral contaminants from the same container. Cover and place both beakers in a dark enclosure to prevent UV effect. Measure bacterial count in both beakers after specified
periods of ½, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 hours and compare. The experiment may be
repeated with silver pieces of different sizes, water from different sources
and different bacterial contaminants. Publish your results in a reputed journal but do credit this author by quoting the online reference containing the same note minus illustrations at,
https://www.scribd.com/doc/269008006/The-Silver-in-Pot-SIP-method-to-improve-health-and-save-lives
https://www.scribd.com/doc/269008006/The-Silver-in-Pot-SIP-method-to-improve-health-and-save-lives
The presence of common minerals and salts in the water
influences the solubility of silver at microscopic levels as well as the
compounds formed by reaction therein. Therefore water from different sources
would behave differently. Adding small amounts of a dry citric acid powder is expected to improve the effect and may be examined separately. Use of low voltage current to produce silver ions although known to assist should be avoided to assist simplicity, low cost and widespread use. However antibacterial and antiviral activity is
expected in all samples in which silver has been placed. The experiment should help come up with more precise specification for size of silver object, how long it should be placed in water before it can be consumed and/or use of any additive to water to enhance effect etc. A series of publications are possible by using water from different sources such as distilled, soft, hard and different contaminants. Specify silver object used by surface area exposed to water. Best wishes.
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