Earlier filtration straws were an overhyped failure. I've heard anecdotaly some of the latest offerings are much better. The straws clog mostly with particulate matter. This shouldn't pose a problem if the straws can be shaken out. My concern is how the user knows when it is no longer useable. Western aid tends to dump stuff on the 'Third World' with sometimes poor followup information.The reports of indian women wearing birth control pills on necklaces as talismans for example. Not that the 'educated' west isn't equally guilty. Anyone who has worked retail knows this. I'll never forget the customer returning a ficus tree because it didn't grow in spite of water and fertilizing. It pained me to explain it was a artificial plant <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />