Posted by Sharon Schendel
Completed WAPIs ready for packaging and shipping
 
We joined Rotaract at UCSD Presents for its 6th annual WAPI Project. Over 100 volunteers from Rotaract, Rotary and other UCSD student organizations like the health pre-professional honor society Alpha Epsilon Delta helped assemble more than 1,000 water pasteurization indicators (WAPIs). 
The WAPIs are destined for refugee camps in Uganda and Oaxaca. WAPIs  provides a simple, inexpensive and resusable visual indicator that water is safe to drink. The green wax plug melts when the water temperature reaches 150 ˚F, which is sufficient to kill most water-borne pathogens.  With a WAPI, users don't need to boil the water, but rather can just look for the melted wax, which cuts down on fuel.  
 
Full house of volunteers ready to get started (Photo credit Elana Levens-Craig)
 
Don and Donna Fipps await instructions (Photo credit Elana Levens-Craig)
 
Janice Kurth stringing WAPIs with UCSD Rotaract President Kaeley O'Shea
 
Sharon Schendel pounding WAPIs (Photo credit Elana Levens-Craig)