Most people in rural India don’t get access to clean water. They rely on rudimentary techniques like sedimentation (allowing the dirt to settle at the bottom) to extract drinkable water, but chemicals and solvents still remain suspended in the water that gets filtered out.
Clay creates a bridge between rural and urban practices. It’s essentially a gravity operated water filter that has an outer body of terracotta. Rather than relying on plastic, which is neither abundant in villages nor healthy, the outer body of the Clay purifier is made from a highly abundant resource. Within this outer body lies the filtration system that comprises a sediment filter and an Activated Carbon filter that extracts dissolved impurities out of the water, making it completely potable and free of not just suspended dirt, but toxins too!
What’s great about the Clay purifier is the terracotta outer body. Earthen pots are often used to transfer and store water in rural parts of India and the Clay purifier modernizes these pots, rather than replacing them. Plus, terracotta is known to naturally cool the water too, keeping it pleasantly chilled even in the summer!
Designer: Rohit Bhutra