Researchers develop cheap material to purify water

According to researchers, contaminated water can be cleaned much more effectively with a novel, cheap material.

The material dubbed ''super sand'' could work as a low-cost solution to the problem of supplying potable water in the developing world.

The technology uses grains of sand coated on an oxide of a widely available material called graphite – used widely as lead in pencils.

Many countries in world can still offer access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities to only limited sections of their population.

According to The World Health Organization, "just 60 per cent of the population in Sub-Saharan African and 50 per cent of the population in Oceania [islands in the tropical Pacific Ocean] use improved sources of drinking-water."

Experts say the graphite-coated sand grains might be a solution – sand has been used sand to purify water since ancient times.

However filtering techniques can be tricky with ordinary sand.