Life Straws
Source: Humanwire correspondent Ruud Elmendorp brings us a report on how Life Straws are changing millions of lives in Kenya. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more Rocketboom Daily with Molly!  Follow us on Twitter for the latest updates!  Join us on Facebook for behind the scenes pics and videos!

Humanwire correspondent Ruud Elmendorp brings us a report on how Life Straws are changing millions of lives in Kenya. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more Rocketboom Daily with Molly!  Follow us on Twitter for the latest updates!  Join us on Facebook for behind the scenes pics and videos!


  10. FredrikFlintstone says:
    January 5, 2011 at 9:40 am

    I live in Canada where I can jump in almost any river or lake and take a big drink. Sad to think that people are growing up thinking this is a dream. 10 thumbs up for this program.

  12. TheTramsen says:
    January 5, 2011 at 9:41 am

    @teddy12012Y Liar. she’s sucking my cock at this very moment, and our kids are playing tag right next to us.

  35. satyricon65 says:
    January 5, 2011 at 10:30 am

    People are praising the Dutch for this… all they did was report this.

    The people to thank are the Danes. They had the minerals to do something.

  38. huntercd says:
    January 5, 2011 at 10:31 am

    no body is talking about the dangers of this “new” device. prolonged use can cause kidney failure due to the lack minerals as the filter only gets you nearly pure H2O. you need about 1500 parts per million of salts and such to have healthy drinking water, but that filter makes it more like 250 parts per million. that is not healthy! and the filter was intended for soldiers who run out of water canteens in combat combat operations.

  43. Hazelnutfilling says:
    January 5, 2011 at 10:35 am

    @frebels well, the new report talking about this project is dutch, but the people doing the project are danish, as they mention twice O.O and i can tell also tell they are danish by the english accent

  47. sShaDOhsS says:
    January 5, 2011 at 10:49 am

    @dennieguitargod Those straws are Danish, the language from Ruud Elmendorp is Dutch.
    And this Dutch accent is quite weird…

  51. mrteemumilto says:
    January 5, 2011 at 11:03 am

    Those people live like this because they live in the periphery of the First World. The West destroyed their tribal society, made them over-populate, made them poor, underdeveloped and starving, and the hypocritical Western citizens occationally pour to them these temporary welfare items that will never change their own home government, and it just makes it last longer.

  55. TimmyTurnersDad says:
    January 5, 2011 at 11:10 am

    @hitokage651 I had a similar problem once. Try subscribing again and then unsubscribing again. That worked for me.

  58. TimmyTurnersDad says:
    January 5, 2011 at 11:19 am

    @HomunculusProject No, this is ‘normal’ Dutch. I am Dutch but I don’t understand a word of Frisian Dutch.

  63. THC1989 says:
    January 5, 2011 at 11:24 am

    @Bassie1H I think the woman at 2:04 is Danish, her pronunciation is very typical Danish and she makes a slip where she says “vi har” witch is Danish and she says it with Danish pronunciation. It is often quite easy to hear if people are from Denmark, few people speak so fragmented and over-pronounce every single word. (I am from Denmark myself)

  72. Spherical3 says:
    January 5, 2011 at 11:45 am

    Why do people need this straw? There appears to be plenty of cattle dung which, when dried, can be used as fuel for a fire to boil the water, effectively killing all harmful microbes. Seems like a bit of a waste of resources to me.

  73. HomunculusProject says:
    January 5, 2011 at 11:48 am

    @Spherical3 You can not kill all viruses, bacteria and parasites by boiling water. Not to mention the toxins.

  78. Thormodo says:
    January 5, 2011 at 12:10 pm

    @dennieguitargod Err, you “fail”. Its a Danish product.

    Btw, at the end they translate ‘voorlopig’ into ‘for a long time’, this should be ‘for the time being’.

  79. dennieguitargod says:
    January 5, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    @Thormodo i certainly did not fail, i’m saying the video is in dutch, not danish as a lot of people are thinking,
    i knew the product was danish

  82. thaoval123 says:
    January 5, 2011 at 12:14 pm

    IMO most of the humanitarian efforts in Africa are in vain, you need to sort out the politics first… that involves confrontations, and removing people, and no one wants to do that because apparently its more immoral than watching unfortunate, unenlightened people stay that way.

    Remove the despots, remove the poverty.

  85. Probewitch says:
    January 5, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    This is a very nobel effort. Two questions; How does the user know when the staw is outdated? Will these people be charged to get replacements?

  89. OMIGHTYGUY says:
    January 5, 2011 at 12:27 pm

    @thaoval123 I hate politics. They’re getting in the way of fixing this, and are hurting the world in many other ways.

  90. tewster says:
    January 5, 2011 at 12:29 pm

    who the fuck are the 8 people that would dislike this. I bet you they wont dislike it when they’re the ones drinking shit filled water.

  98. dennieguitargod says:
    January 5, 2011 at 12:45 pm

    @Doomcommin again, like i told so many others, i’m not saying the product isn’t danish, i’m telling the video is dutch, like a lot of people are implying

  106. nietsissimpel says:
    January 5, 2011 at 1:13 pm

    I can confirm the commentary spoken during the video is indeed Dutch! But I’d rather hear Molly’s beautifl British accent!

  110. cheesefishgirl says:
    January 5, 2011 at 1:40 pm

    fact about the dutch society: they put a lot of work to help people in africa, but as soon one of them comes to our country they are being blamed for crimes, terrorism and they want them to leave the country and live like crap again.
    We help the people for our ‘image’,we pick a random country in africa and decide to go there for one day with camera’s to show how bad they have it while the people who visit actually have tons of money and could easely live with a little less of that money.

  122. AleximusMaximus says:
    January 5, 2011 at 2:33 pm

    @maksphoto78 “So what makes Africa such a dreadful place to live? Why are Westerners constantly obliged to help them?”

    Are you kidding me? You’re on the internet and you don’t have even one answer (of which there are countless) to that question? You’re a troll or an idiot.

  133. phillip8739 says:
    January 5, 2011 at 3:25 pm

    @puretroubleman I wouldn’t think so, just by the fact that they mentioned the life straw only lasts a year, and usually when you don’t have profits, production can’t come in the quantity that all theses people need, so this is when you come and ask for government support.

  136. kotapaka says:
    January 5, 2011 at 3:48 pm

    Yes, they look weak and pitiful in Africa but as soon as they get to Europe or the US they start causing trouble usually in the form of violence. Better keep them there eating shit then in the West killing us and living of the others.

  138. RoseBrazeale says:
    January 5, 2011 at 3:53 pm

    The Life Straw sounds amazing! Pity it only lasts a year. Hopefully they’ll make improvements so it lasts longer!

  143. 1acroyear1 says:
    January 5, 2011 at 4:20 pm

    Great idea! You wouldn’t want those people to learn how to boil water. Better to make them dependent on technology that they can’t reproduce domestically.

  145. raifsevrence says:
    January 5, 2011 at 4:34 pm

    @1acroyear1 Boiling water only has certain beneficial effects. There are many things in water which cannot be cleansed simply by getting it really hot.

    Filtration is the only guaranteed safe solution. It might seem to you to be a commercial crutch with some sort of hidden hook with diabolical intentions, but either way this will save a lot of lives !

  150. JPiiiX says:
    January 5, 2011 at 5:18 pm

    @shahherwan93 why would they give such thing if this is totally the opposite of what they’re trying to accomplish.

  153. theQman121 says:
    January 5, 2011 at 5:34 pm

    Not to take away from the seriousness of this, but whoever added the captions needs to learn the difference in ‘loose’ and ‘lose’

  158. derekcolman says:
    January 5, 2011 at 5:59 pm

    @JUSTbeltiful . No she is not. Molly is Canadian like you. But she has lived most of her life in England and has a distinctly English accent. Caitlin, who used to present rocketboom before Molly, is Australian.

  160. 1acroyear1 says:
    January 5, 2011 at 6:06 pm

    @raifsevrence Boiling has only ONE beneficial effect, which is the ONLY one that matters- namely, it kills germs. In most cases filtration doesn’t even address that issue, which sort of makes this system unique. As for particulates in disinfected water, these people are clearly used to drinking cloudy water anyway but they can run it through a sand and charcoal filter if they like.
    It’s the difference between giving a man a fish or teaching him to fish. Good intentions, bad planning.

  166. PumapeltWarrior says:
    January 5, 2011 at 6:45 pm

    @tHecOmMeNtErSrEtUrN You really have to keep in mind that when people herd cattle, they often don’t bring a lot with them. They might have to travel many miles to find grazing areas for the herd, and they’d get worn out if they carried a bunch of equipment with them. Besides, many people might not have enough money do buy certain supplies to purify water. Not only that but most herds have 50+ cattle in them. You can’t control ALL of them at the same time.

  167. PumapeltWarrior says:
    January 5, 2011 at 6:46 pm

    @henomafia What about contamination of water? You can’t really do anything if you’re dehyrdrated or starving.

  170. PumapeltWarrior says:
    January 5, 2011 at 6:53 pm

    @DemonDash Like in the video, many people live by doing agricultural or by herding. When dry season comes, they have to find grass for thier cattle to eat that’s not dried out. So they might have to travel to very rural places to find it. It’s sad but I don’t think it’s possible to build a water filter for every water source a herder stumbles upon.

  171. haloboy456 says:
    January 5, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    Its a shame that tis video only receives only 1,800 views versus your typical Rocket boom video which receives many times more. People ned to get more interested in humanitarian efforts around the world.

  172. GunsNRoses1337 says:
    January 5, 2011 at 7:24 pm

    This is the shit I want to do. Fuck working in some office for the rest of my life, I want to travel and help people. This video was really inspiring.

  175. digivince says:
    January 5, 2011 at 7:52 pm

    @DemonDash that is exactly what the straw does, You saw the water the in the puddle the kid was drinking from. You think ou’d want to drink from that without some kinda of filter? Making it as portable as it is helps them out even more. All they have to do to get clean drinking water almost anywhere they go is to bring a small plastic tube with them.

  176. 1010011010is29a says:
    January 5, 2011 at 7:55 pm

    Ummm call me old fashioned, but with all that dry animal dung why not just boil the water? Maybe we should be sending them cauldrons instead of a billion fucking plastic litter pieces. Made from oil.

  177. DemonDash says:
    January 5, 2011 at 7:56 pm

    @digivince

    I know that, I was being sarcastic. My point was they should build a filter on a larger scale then they can use it to filter large quantities of water AS WELL AS small quantities. That way when they don’t have pumps to rely on they can still store water that’s safe for drinking.

  179. t1mTV says:
    January 5, 2011 at 8:56 pm

    i dont get why we don’t just bomb places like africa or haiti. when a horse breaks its leg you kill it to put it out of its misery. the same should be done to these people.

  181. frankylovesyall says:
    January 5, 2011 at 9:07 pm

    This is all fine and well, but doesn’t constantly feeding and treating and throwing medicine and food at Africa seem like we’re just keeping someone that’s terminally ill on life support?! I mean, people have no problem aborting babies because they don’t want them to have a shitty life, but we shower these people with every tool possible to keep them alive in the shittiest situation imaginable. You preach your Darwinism, but fight it’s natural course in many of these cases. Sorry Africa. Sorry.

  184. GmasterRED says:
    January 5, 2011 at 9:12 pm

    >mfw the filter gets dirty and they are still using it 20 years later, killing themselves.
    That’s how they do it in Africa.

  185. GmasterRED says:
    January 5, 2011 at 9:15 pm

    Why do they refer to it as “the soda company”?
    Is Rocketboom worried about upsetting their sponsor, Coca Cola?

  188. GmasterRED says:
    January 5, 2011 at 9:16 pm

    @Mixarenan
    True. They can make anything last virtually forever if we didn’t live in a world that depends on consumerism to survive.

  194. GmasterRED says:
    January 5, 2011 at 9:20 pm

    @kotapaka
    Africa has never even produced any great civilizations, with the exception of the Egyptians, which are more arab then African.

  197. GmasterRED says:
    January 5, 2011 at 9:23 pm

    @derekcolman
    She is English, you nitwit. She just lived in Canada for a few years before moving to Best America.

  204. atalina08 says:
    January 5, 2011 at 10:02 pm

    @GmasterRED He does what he can, when he can. Rite now, his main focus is to serve his country first. While hopefully other people with power can help them, ep. Celebrities, other countries, Fundraisers/Orangizations, you or I by donating to different fundraisers, even if its a dollar

  206. woody500z says:
    January 5, 2011 at 10:25 pm

    Who cares about Africans, i’m sick of hearing about them, you can’t help those who cant help themselves, how about we help the staving and poor Europeans, that you conveniently never hear about.

  209. Goodboy7557 says:
    January 5, 2011 at 11:26 pm

    Tell that to a western person. I bet not a single viewer of this video could survive just by drinking water. What about medical? Cooking? Disinfectant? Cleaning? This sure is better than nothing, but seems a bit of an absurd solution to actually implementing long term infrastructure improvements.

  212. Wizzie0 says:
    January 6, 2011 at 12:11 am

    @woody500z because they don’t have it that bad. Obviously, you don’t know how bad the situation is in Africa, and a lot of Western countries have actually contributed to that. A lot of Europeans can’t take care of themselves. What if everyone had the attitude you did and stopped helping out others? The world would be more screwed than people like you have made it already. I could adopt your attitude and ask “why should I help someone living on a flourishing continent who can’t help themselves?”

  214. haloboy456 says:
    January 6, 2011 at 1:17 am

    @GmasterRED You fail to see that we are on the same page. We both want to help people. Typical Rocketboom uploads after 10 hours have up to 3,000-5,00 hits..typically. But I’ve noticed, even in the long term, humanitarian videos don”t get as many views. This is no personal attack to you, obviously you watched the video. I was making a general statement. No need to call me moron in any ways we actually agree on the inspirational nature of this video. I just wished more people felt the same way.

  218. ikbenbeterinclubpeng says:
    January 6, 2011 at 6:08 am

    I’ve always wanted to see someone see talk our language in a foreign program. A dream has come true, just 45 to go!

  224. cricketbat08 says:
    January 6, 2011 at 11:56 am

    Wow, this is a reality check. I will never again take my access to unlimited clean water for granted. Those people have such a hard life. Thank goodness I live in the UK.

  227. Hashime777222 says:
    January 6, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    You should see that canadian version of this technology, it uses “straws” with nano-scale pores that only allow water through, well, some ions can fit.

  228. gulllars says:
    January 6, 2011 at 12:17 pm

    These are great devices, which could save a lot of lives, but as they are used have a 1:1 ratio between devices and users. While this is scalable, the economy of it isn’t.
    If they made scaled up versions for households or villages, you could provide a lot more clean water with the same resources spent, and scale it to more users faster. That’s not to say these single person devices need be replaced by it, as clean water during the day while away from dwellings are critical for many people too.

  229. derekcolman says:
    January 6, 2011 at 12:39 pm

    @GmasterRED . Yes, you are right. I was misled by her interview in 888 gathering the full story video. When Cory asked about her accent she seemed to imply she was a Canadian who lived in England for 17 years. I now realise that was just stage nerves.

  230. derekcolman says:
    January 6, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    @JUSTbeltiful . Sorry, correction. Molly is totally English. She moved to Ottawa about 4 years ago when her parents took work there.

  235. httprover says:
    January 6, 2011 at 1:59 pm

    Henry Darcy designed water filtration systems in the mid-1800s in France that worked quite well. Perhaps social and foreign aide workers and NGOs could teach the people of Kenya how to build local communial public works systems for better sanitation.

  236. kailea2323 says:
    January 6, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    thats actually a great idea!!!
    a few flaws:
    -only last a year
    -what will happen to all of these plastic life straws once they are no longer usable? will you recycle them, and simply change the filter inside of them- or will they, like water bottles, sit in landfills?

  239. woody500z says:
    January 6, 2011 at 4:23 pm

    @Wizzie0 They don’t have it that bad? I’ll give you one example,
    saturnic.livejournal(DOT)com/417904.html

    Obliviously, you don’t know how bad the situations are in Europe, and the Genocide of European peoples. The difference between helping an African and a European is that Europeans can be helped, Africans can’t, its in their genetics, hence why where ever they go turns into a ghetto, and please don’t play blame whitey for everything bad that has ever happened. Cant argue with facts.

  241. sarsattacks says:
    January 6, 2011 at 6:31 pm

    @holymasteric

    education. Europeans used to not boil the water and gave up drinking it completely. They started getting their water from wine and fresh milk, hence why Caucasians have a higher tolerance to alcohol and a later onset of lactose intolerance (most animals lose their ability to drink milk after they become adults)

  243. PumapeltWarrior says:
    January 6, 2011 at 7:29 pm

    @DemonDash It’s better then drinking nothing. For all you know, getting that water that day might save thier lives.

  244. PumapeltWarrior says:
    January 6, 2011 at 7:30 pm

    @henomafia XD 1. I’m only 14 ;P
    2. They won’t have the money for even that e.e (maybe, plus again, some of the people are kids)
    3. Alcohol can’t replace water.

  245. kailea2323 says:
    January 6, 2011 at 8:23 pm

    Respond to this video…
    I didn’t say that the flaws I pointed out should stop them from producing and distributing them- the fact that these exist is amazing. this is a great product that they are giving to people who need them. It is awesome that they are saving millions of lives.
    Im just wondering what is going to happen to the billions of life straws that become ineffective after a year; where will they all wind up?

  248. donfolstar says:
    January 6, 2011 at 10:22 pm

    I’m just gonna throw this out there: Kenya, if you cannot collectively solve basic problems like obtaining drinking water why are there 40 million of you?

    So many problems would be solved by there being fewer people and here is a prime example to add to the list.

  254. carbronica says:
    January 7, 2011 at 9:48 am

    Feed a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Feed a fish a man and he’ll eat for like, two and a half months.

  258. alexvegas says:
    January 7, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    The fact that it lasts a year isn’t a disadvantage; that’s a lot longer than I expected. What an amazing invention!

  260. choisant says:
    January 7, 2011 at 3:12 pm

    @Draugrinnify Not at all :P I was expecting danish though, and being Norwegian we tend to make jokes about how hard it is to understand danish ;)

  267. Draugrinnify says:
    January 8, 2011 at 10:23 am

    @choisant really? well norwegian, is kind of hard, even though it’s also kind of nice… so there! how do you feel about that?!!

  269. choisant says:
    January 8, 2011 at 3:56 pm

    @Draugrinnify It is said that Norwegian to foreigners sound like ” the sound of spitting, at a distance.” i don’t know what you make of that, but was I not born here I would never have bothered myself to learn it xP I don’t take compliments too well :/

  273. WOWJBEOWULF says:
    January 9, 2011 at 6:23 pm

    The problem is the language, law, heritage that the people use; they openly defecate in and around the water sources and then have problems with purification that bring up the age old plagues that wipe out community members each year. The only way out of that bad news is a better education to improve the behavior of the entire community, and remove the superstition and its resulting behavior. Give a 19th century Indian a flashlight, it is a party for a night; give an education, then better.

  274. tHecOmMeNtErSrEtUrN says:
    January 9, 2011 at 7:39 pm

    @PumapeltWarrior

    I am not talking about how much they carry, and how much money they got, they should stop cattle from polluting the drinking supply, if it means getting some form of water container, and placing them separate, it would help greatly regardless.

    And sure they might have to travel a lot of miles to feed these cows, but still separating the cow crap from the water would help don’t you think?

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