The question of ”the end of books” pops up into our news stream on a regular basis.  But the printed works are far from being dead, they are constantly being reinvented, moving into a multisensoryand multifunctional age.

The latest application comes from non-profit organisation Water Is Life, in collaboration with typographer Brian Gartside. The Drinkable Book is designed to provide both information about sanitation and hygiene, and a practical solution to procure clean water, without any extra costs.

Made from a special paper developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon and the University of Virginia, its pages contain useful guidelines and can also be ripped off and used as water filters for 30 days. Each volume comes packed in a 3D printed filter box, so users only have to slide a page in, and pour water over it, to purify up to 5,000 liters of liquid. This translates to approximately four years of clean and risk-free water.

With 3.4 million people dying each year from water-related diseases, The Drinkable Book might become the most creative, and relatively low-cost life saving tool.