Water 'jerrycans' quench thirst, save lives.

• Author: Jean, Grace V.
• Position: INSIDESCIENCE+TECHNOLOGY

* Troops in Afghanistan must have their water supply trucked in because they lack purification systems that would make it possible for them to drink from nearby rivers.

On a weekly basis, as many as 50 "jingle trucks" that are contracted by the Defense Department travel from Pakistan to deliver water bottles to key forward operating bases along the Helmand River, said Brig. Gen. David Berger, director of the operations division at Marine Corps Headquarters. Troops then risk their lives in convoys to distribute the bottles to base camps all around the region, he said at NDIA's Expeditionary Warfare Conference in Panama City, Fla.

Gen. James Amos, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, in mid-November said the service was on the cusp of shipping reverse-osmosis water purification systems to several of its larger bases in Afghanistan. But troops who go out on patrol still have the fundamental problem of carrying enough clean water to last for days-long missions.

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They rely upon the jerrycan, a 20-liter plastic container that was invented more than 70 years ago by the Germans. Originally made from pressed steel to hold fuel, the jug is used by militaries around the world to store fluids. Units fill them up with clean water, but the supply lasts for only a few days before the contents must be discarded or sterilized again.

A British company has updated the container with a filtration technology that purifies water on an as-needed basis.

"Our principle is, you store the water dirty," said John Pritchard, inventor and CEO of Lifesaver Systems, headquartered in Ipswich, United Kingdom.

The product debuted at an international defense and security technology exhibition in London, where Pritchard demonstrated how the system works. He dipped a jerrycan into a small pool of dirty-looking liquid. After it filled up, he replaced the lid, which contains a pump that pressurizes the container to allow water to flow through the filtration system and out of a tap on the other side of the can.

Only when one activates the pump does it actually start to sterilize the water. "The water stays dirty until you need to use it," he said. "It can stand there for weeks."

The water passes through a membrane with pores that measure 15 nanometers in diameter. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. The smallest bacteria measures 200 nanometers across and the smallest virus is 25 nanometers. Lifesaver's jerrycan system prevents bacteria, viruses and...