The Technology Context - Sustainable Technology Report

Cellopore sheets are a recent technology invention, their purpose is simple; to combat the related problems that arise from various natural disasters.
The idea is simple, take a biodegradable bag, and add in a mechanism to remove harmful elements from potentially dangerous water that’s flows through it.
This technology has already been implemented and used in various recent natural disasters such as the ‘tsunami’ and the immense destruction of various hurricanes such as Rita and Katrina. However the potential of this technology has only just been scratched, throughout the duration of this report I will open your eyes to the next steps this amazing technology can take.

The technology – The objective?
One of the main issues with the implementation of disaster relief is actually meeting the demand for required lacking resource. Mother Nature is still unpredictable even with the advancement of technology, so tactical aid plans
cannot always be introduced.

The technology was designed with that specific objective in mind; currently the competing technologies in disaster relief lack the ability to meet the demands of the victims that require aid, in a quick and urgent manner. In this case, Transporting enormous amounts of water to those in need. We have all seen it before on the news, where supplies have been dropped by charities and their rationing is simply who can get to the ‘drop point’ and carry it back to the suffering victims.

Cellopore sheet’s tackle this flaw by not transporting the actual resource (water) but instead allow the victims to ‘create’ the resource from any water source, following the multilingual instructions or diagrams printed on the back of each individual sheet.

Smart.

Cellopore sheets – the Alternatives
As mentioned above I have clearly stated the main issue relating to technologies of disaster relief, so what are these alternatives?

Bulk water – Trucks
A commonly used method is the truck drop, as you may have already guessed; a truck is filled with as much bottled water as possible and driven to a designated ‘drop’ zone.

Bulk water – Helicopter or Airplane
A less frequent way of providing aid is using airborne vehicles, when aid is a matter of life and death army forces may choose to literally air drop supplies to the drop zone if unreachable, which is true in many disasters such as hurricanes and floods.

As you can see there is little variation in the relief alternatives, this is why cellopore sheets are so unique and a truly beneficial technology out performing alternatives in various situations.

Cellopore sheets – The Political and Financial impact
Most of the funding towards natural disasters is funded by the government and the country that the event took place. However charities and relief events also contribute a huge amount of capital towards the supplies.
Now if we think of the production of an alternative VS the cellopore sheets we can see that the mass production of bottled water, including the transportation and disposal of the materials; the cellopore sheets have an obvious advantage. As mentioned in previous reports the cellopore sheets are 100% green friendly, the film is made in renewable plantation farms and the bags are biodegradable, which means the waste from the production of the sheets is none existent, perfect.

Now when we start to consider the mass production of plastic bottled water you will get an idea of the huge difference. Is creation and disposal of plastic environmentally friendly? The transport of the relief, is it economic? Admittedly the ability to save innocent peoples life’s serves greater purpose than the reduction in environmental hazards related to production and transport, but with the advantages of cellopore sheets you are as such ‘killing two birds with one stone’.
Another huge political factor is the pricing of the relief, as nothing in life is free unfortunately. However consider this, imagine a water bottle that can capacitate 4 liters of water, great 4 liters of pure water right? Ok, now imagine filling the volume of that bottled with packed 1 liter cellopore sheet’s .(remembering that a packed sheet is no larger than an A4 piece of paper) With the volume of the water bottle filled the amount of possible purified drinking water has risen to over 100 liters.

The reason I mention this is due to the fact that the money contributed towards the disaster could go so much further, meaning that the investors of capital can focus money on other areas, such as rebuilding the community whilst tackling the resource relief head on.

Regards to sustainable development
As mentioned before in my previous reports the technology has potential to make massive global changes to the way we purify water. I will now expand on this idea and try to highlight the key points that could make this technology a phenomenon.
These following points are looked at from a paradigm way of thinking, taking the key concepts of the technology and implementing them into mainstream water purification.
As is stands, water purification plants do there job by using the following methods;
• Chemical sterilization
• Using large amounts of energy
• Taking up large amounts of space for the plants (visual pollution)
• Boiling

All of which is causes some form of pollution!

So taking what we already know about cellopore sheets and there unique way of purifying water, you can start to imagine the changes that could be made.
So just to recap, cellopore sheets use a renewable special film to actively purify water that passes through it. So in theory purification plants that dump huge amounts of chemicals or require large amounts of energy could be eradicated by using natural water flow and the special film to remove the harmful bacteria. By doing this not only would it be environmentally friendly but it will also outperform current methods of water purification by effectively removing more of the harmful substances.

Looking at the technology within its current aims and objectives we are also able to see huge sustainable development.
The usage of this technology would also mean that the money governments, charities and your voluntary contribution will go so much further. The pure satisfaction of a small donation would actually mean you have saved a life.
Amazingly the mass production of this technology would actually benefit our planet! The plantations fields required to make the special film will create oxygen and in turn provide a habitat to insects and animals, opposed to other production techniques that actually destroy them.

With increased production, the sheets could even tackle 3rd world water related issues (please see report one for further information) by providing a method to allow half the population of Africa to have access to clean drinking water saving many lives in the process by eliminating water related diseases.

Conclusion
Over the course of creating the various reports and researching the Cellopore sheets I have learnt immense amounts about the barriers which natural disasters put up, the processes and funds required and the limiting factors of the sustainable technology. Continuing, I have also been reminded that I take the simple requirements of life and the human body for granted; to me it is quite shocking to see the facts and figures I have researched in relation to clean water distribution and thus its unavailability in many areas of the world.
I am truly amazed by these simple sheets that have the potential not only to save millions of lives but also the national and global possibility to change the way we look at water purification. All I can hope for is that the right eyes read what I have written about the technology and we see greater usage of this ‘God send’.

Article one: http://mosaic.cnfolio.com/B101CW2007A201
Article two: http://mosaic.cnfolio.com/B101CW2007B201/files.xml?action=download&file=sustechpres.pptx
There has been no direct reference’s in this report.