LOUISVILLE, Ky. --- Dec. 13, 2013 --- (NYSE:GE) --- GE engineers, in partnership with Louisville's WaterStep organization, are providing 60 inventive portable water purification devices to thousands in the typhoon-stricken Philippines. The need for emergency drinking water supplies in the country is immense due to the disaster that hit the country's most impoverished areas on Nov. 8.
The portable water treatment system, called the M-100 Chlorine Generator, uses salt water and electricity from either a car battery or a solar panel to make chlorine and purify water. Each unit can treat more than 10,000 gallons of water per day. Together, the 60 units could produce enough drinking water to supply 600,000 people. Easily transported, it can purify compromised city water or pump from streams and work long after short-term aid disappears.
The device engineered by Sam DuPlessis and Steve Froelicher, engineers at GE Appliances in Louisville, was previously used to bring safe drinking water to Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake, Pakistan during a flood and 23 other countries. DuPlessis, Froelicher and GE Volunteers have donated their time to build the Philippine units. Local GE workers in the Philippines received the first chlorinator from Louisville one week after the storm hit.
GE Appliances' innovation has recently extended to WaterStep's WaterBall project as well. Designed by GE Appliances' engineers, the WaterBall is a simple idea --- a large, hollow, plastic sphere with a handle to push it. Though it may seem simple, its impact is enormous. The WaterBall requires users to push it, not carry it, so the strain on the body is significantly less. The community can learn more about and contribute to WaterBall via the project's crowdfunding website.
GE Appliances
GE Appliances is at the forefront of building innovative, energy-efficient appliances that improve people's lives. GE Appliances' products include refrigerators, freezers, cooking products, dishwashers, washers, dryers, air conditioners, water filtration systems and water heaters. General Electric (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter to build a world that works better. For more information on GE Appliances, visit www.ge.com/appliances.
Kim Freeman
GE Consumer & Industrial - Americas
[email protected]
502-452-7819