MSR has announced that it will be embarking on a crowd-funding initiative with nonprofit partners, World Vision and Operation Blessing, which will facilitate distribution of its Community Chlorine Maker to approximately half a million people in low-resource environments.

To outdoors people, MSR is best known for its wilderness stoves and water purification gear, but the company is also active in the area of global health. The Community Chlorine Maker is designed to be an easy-to-use water purification solution.

Taking just five minutes, the device ‘creates chlorine using water, salt and electricity’. Each cycle produces enough chlorine to make 200 liters of water that’s safe to drink. To function, it needs only a water source, salt brine and electricity from a car battery or mains power. And amazingly, it’ll produce produce enough chlorine to treat 40,000 liters from just one typical 12V car battery charge.

That makes it invaluable in crisis situations where clean drinking water is vital to health. The World Health Organization estimates that at least 1.8 billion people get their water from a contaminated source.

And as a direct result of that, diseases like diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid alone kill 361,000 children under the age of five each year.

How Does It Work?

MSR developed the Community Chlorine Maker in partnership with global health innovation group PATH in 2015 and are working with World Vision and Operation Blessing to get it to the places where it’s needed most.

‘We’ve got the device and our partners have the vital structure in place to get them into the field,’
– Jane Mauser, marketing director at MSR.

She adds: “I can proudly say this is the most important piece of gear we’ve ever made.“ More people deserve access to it.”

More Information

You can find out more about the initiative and how to contribute at www.communitychlorinemaker.com and thesummitregister.com/most-important-gear-weve-ever-made

If you need any more convincing, check out the video below.