“A MISTAKE IS MEANT TO BE MADE

SO THAT WE DON'T MAKE IT BIG THE NEXT TIME”

Good morning everyone. My name is Ahantya Alla. Today, I'm here to convey my idea, "The Water
Refining Proboscis." What do you think of when you hear those words? Do they sound like some big
science thing? First of all, it is not as big as you might think it is. It is so teeny that it can even fit in your
pocket. Secondly, the terms 'refining' and 'proboscis' may seem like some terms only scientists use, but
you use these words in your day-to-day life too, just that you use their synonyms instead. Refining is
actually nothing but filtering or purifying. Proboscis, on the other hand, may seem like a really complex
word, though it isn't. A Proboscis is one of the most ordinary things that you know, a straw.

When I was about 8, my parents told me we were moving to a small seaside city in Andhra Pradesh
named Vizag, and at first, I felt thrilled. But back then, I thought the oceans would create a massive
tsunami and drown me. No way I was going there, I felt. I was too terrified back then. Although now that
I look back at that thought, I feel dumb. And a few weeks after I moved to Vizag, my parents took my
brother and me to the beach. I was freaking out at all the water everywhere. But as I stepped into the
water, I felt a cold surge through my body. That's when I started thinking like an actual person, not just a
frightened kid. The ocean wasn't going to rise and make a tsunami. It wouldn't drown me. I realized that
I wasn't the one who needed to be afraid of water. In fact, water was being ruined and fouled by us
humans instead. There are so many countries with millions of people suffering from the lack of clean,
purified, and drinkable water, not even a sip being available in those areas.

My message hopes to reach everyone from up Mount Everest to down to the Challenger Deep in the
Mariana Trench. Though my main focus will remain on Africa for now as the countries in Africa suffer the
most because of this crisis. Africa is the second largest and most populated continent. And even though
it's gotten the longest river on the planet, it has the world's largest desert too. Its population is about
1.4B people. And just imagine how much suffering would those people be facing, if put into numbers,
infinite, for what we can say.

Now, let's understand a bunch of statistics and data and a bunch of more boring stuff... just kidding! But
we will know more about one of the most used water refining proboscis, 'The Lifestraw'.
So ... what do we know about it till now? Well, we obviously know that it purifies water when you take a
sip through it. And some people may also know that its parent company is Vestergaard. So to explain
now, I'm not gonna go too deep into the topic but I'll be giving a heavy introduction. The LifeStraw is a
portable water purification tool that cleanses surface water and makes it safe for human consumption. It
is 25 cm long and 29 mm in diameter and can be hung around the neck. Like, how cool and handy is
that! And LifeStraw requires no electrical power or spare parts. The invention process of LifeStraw is an
amazing evolution. It started in 1994 when Vestergaard Frandsen wanted to develop a water filter that
could remove Guinea nematodes from contaminated water in Guinea. The original design was a filter
cloth, which evolved into a more effective filter tube in 1999. The Lifestraw consists of a blue bucket
with a prefilter insert, a long plastic tube, and a filter cartridge with a tap attached to draw out the
water. No electricity or battery power is required. Gravity takes care of the rest by guiding the water
through a series of filters.

Although … the Lifestraw isn’t the only water-purifying straw in the world. There are plenty of more
straws just like the Lifestraw. But the Lifestraw just happens to be one of the most successful and
efficient ones which have higher publicity compared to the other straws. In fact, a few examples of other
companies which make water-purifying straws are :-
1. TNIU
2. Etekcity
3. Waterdrop
4. ABS
and etc...

This is the reason we need these straws - to help the people who don't have access to clean and
drinkable water, not as some cool gadget or toy for you to use on fun camping trips. And even though
they are easy to make, we must still take good care of them and not waste them like a molecule of air.
Yeah, they're easily made, but sooner or later, we will run out of materials.

To be honest, I'm not here to talk about the 'water-refining proboscis' or the 'water-purifying straw'. I'm
not here to spread the importance of all that 'saving water' kind of stuff either. I'm just here to remind
every single one of you that we should be grateful that we are alive, and for that, we should be thanking
water, as we all know that water is the one unique element that differs it from other planets since water
is the pretty much the main ingredient resulting our ancestors being born.
Even in the past, we humans thought clean water would last forever, but now we are in this crisis of
lacking clean water. This is the mistake we made once or twice or probably a couple hundred times. And
we can't just make it disappear somehow. So to solve this crisis, we can at least start helping by not
making the same mistake anymore.

So now tell me, do you want this future or this future? Well, for me, I want neither of them. I definitely
don't want this one, I might as well die rather than live in a world like this. But this future is too simple
and quite a setback for us, though it's benefiting the environment. This is my dream future, a smart one,
benefiting everyone.

THANK YOU