20 Days of innovation: Water
#20daysofinnovation
It’s a right of passage to live in a really bad share house at least once in your life.
The sort of house where you aren’t sure who the landlord is or if their even still alive.
You open the front door to find a dark narrow hallway lined with an off coloured yellow carpet, or maybe it started off pink.
To enter the bathroom is an adventure and as you stand in the shower inspecting the peeling paint on the walls you wonder if you should’ve worn thongs.
The trick is the not let yourself think too deeply about your surroundings. Lets not question if the mold covering the ceiling is actually bad for your health or if the house has a collective soap policy that you didn’t sign on for. Some things are best pushed to a far-away corner of the mind.
The kitchen presents it’s own obstacles but I’m sure you’re all aware. You pour yourself a glass of water but it tastes a bit funny.
Water is tested at the source but still has a long journey until it reaches you. At the time it seems like a problem of the palate but that weird taste, whether its from degraded pipes or other pollutants could be doing more damage than you realise.
Israeli based startup, Lishtot, is combining cutting edge technology and purpose driven strategies to change the face of share house living conditions everywhere.
Admittedly it has some further reaching applications.
What I love about this company is that they have turned their products into future facilitators of change. The lifecycle of this product increases in value as a tool that provides transparent data regarding water quality to the world.
The device that they have created is called the TestDrop Pro. Small enough to fit on your keychain, this product lets you determine if water contains any contaminants including E. coli, pesticides, toxins and heavy metals. If the device lights up blue, the water is good to drink.
What is unique about this product is that results come within seconds plus it doesn’t have to even touch the water. The sensors in the device pick up on the distortions in electric fields caused by the presence of contaminants.
Testdrop then connects to an app developed by Lishtot that allows users to track their history, gather results and receive alerts about water contamination in the area. Water results can then be sent to the Global Water Quality Map that the company is developing.
The mission is to create a global platform of water quality data which serves as an invaluable resource to governments, companies and communities.
An additional fun fact is the device can detect the presence of saliva. So if anyone has a crazy housemate that brings cups of tea as peace offerings — I suggest its time to move.
