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How many drinks have you had today? Have you had any water? If you have had water, did it look clean?

I’m hoping the water you drank did look clean! Did it also taste ok, smell ok? Again, I’m hoping yes…but was it really clean? If you’ve ever had a bottle of mineral water you might find on the side a list of ingredients, maybe chloride (Cl) or sulfate (SO4). These chemicals are naturally found in water in tiny amounts and those small amounts are completely harmless. There are however other chemicals, like lead (Pb) and arsenic (As), that even in tiny amounts are very poisonous. So you cannot see, taste or smell them but they might still be there!

In the UK we have very strict laws on dangerous chemicals and so if needed the water is cleaned before it ever gets to you – other countries aren’t so lucky and cannot afford to clean water for so many people, especially those that live outside of cities. So I decided I wanted to try and make a machine that was very cheap and used thing that people didn’t want anymore – like scrap metal. Rusty nuts and bolts work great!