The HTI HydroPack is like an empty Capri Sun pouch with powdered nutrients inside. But it’s really a filter you can drop in any water source—a swimming pool, a mud puddle, a contaminated aquifer—and eight to twelve hours later the pack has filled itself with potable, fortified water.

The makers, Hydration Technology Innovations, hope communities prone to flooding—like Mudimbia, Kenya, on Lake Victoria where these photos were taken—can stock up on the packs and put them to use in the first days after disaster. Gaylon White is the Director of Design Programs at Eastman Chemical Company. He helped make the filter membrane for the HydroPack and participated in a field test in Kenya last month. “In an emergency situation, often times the people are surrounded by water, but they can’t drink the water,” he says. “This gives them a way of utilizing the water that’s right there and making it clean to drink and giving them not only hydration, but also nutrients that get them past the first days.”

This is simply an awesome piece of technology, which could make a massive difference to many people once it’s ready for deployment