The Silver in Pot (SIP) method --- by Ashok malhota, online document , June 2015

The Silver in Pot (SIP) method to improve health and save

lives
Ashok Malhotra,
Ph.D. U.B.C. Vancouver, Canada

Infant mortality rates are some of the highest in India and other south Asian
countries and a major cause of this is polluted water primarily for drinking and
some for washing hands before meals, mouth wash, washing fruits and
vegetables that are eaten raw. With increasing population, pollution of water
bodies has increased. Use of outdoors as toilets has increased such pollution. As
a result drinking water has become less than healthy in most areas. While the
rich are able to use expensive devices to purify the water, the poor manage
without any. For some, even boiling and cooling water for drinking is too
expensive or too time consuming. The result is that health of all suffers and when
it comes to the most vulnerable infants and children - many die as a result of it.
While an effort is needed on many fronts to improve the quality of water; some of
these being, stopping the practice of using outdoors as toilet, banning use of
insecticides, banning harmful industrial wastes from being dumped in rivers,
there is one more idea given here that is likely to produce immediate results with
virtually no effort.
The idea is not new in the sense that it has been used by human civilizations in
different parts of the world at different times but it shall be new now for South
Asia. It can be used in any home where the following two conditions exist:
1. Drinking water is stored in a pot or vessel

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The Silver in Pot (SIP) method --- by Ashok malhota, online document , June 2015

2. There is a silver ornament at home or one that can be procured by the

home owner.
Since the two conditions are met by more than 90 percent of poor and rural
homes in India, the method proposed here can be used easily Just scrub wash
the silver ornament or piece with clean water (lime juice may be used as help)
and place it in the drinking water pot. The presence of silver in water works
silently to kill many harmful microbes that are found in water. How this works
has been explained in another note here:
http://someitemshave.blogspot.in/2015/06/antibiotic-of-gods-silver.html
Copper appears to have a similar effect but much use of copper may be toxic. A
silver plated copper piece will however work fine too. The method proposed here
can be combined with the traditional three pot method for further gain if water
available is murky too. The three pot method consists of placing three clay pots
one above the other on a stand. The upper two have a hole for water to drip
below and the middle one is filled with clean sand. Fresh water is filled in the top
pot and clarified water collects in the lowest one. While this method improves
water it cannot kill all the pathogens. Silver is likely to do the trick.
However while silver may destroy harmful microbes it cannot destroy harmful
insecticides/pesticides in water. The simplest way to get rid of this menace is to
simply ban most of them, while making few very expensive through penalizing
tax as with tobacco and alcohol to minimize their usage.
PRECAUTION
The present method is based on traditional knowledge. It does not appear to have
undergone modern scientific validation yet. Therefore any other existing method
that is being used by the household to ensure good quality drinking water
should not be given up pending such validation, rather the SIP method may be
used in addition to any other practice used to purify water.

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The Silver in Pot (SIP) method --- by Ashok malhota, online document , June 2015

Note for Scientists

The following method may be used for testing the efficacy of silver metal piece
placed in water. Take two identical glass beakers sterilized in identical condition.
Place a silver piece in one of them then fill both with infected water containing
for example E. coli or other common water bacterial and viral contaminants from
the same container. Cover and place both beakers in a dark enclosure to prevent
UV effect. Measure bacterial count in both beakers after specified periods of , 1,
2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 hours and compare. The experiment may be repeated with
silver pieces of different sizes, water from different sources and different bacterial
contaminants. Publish your results in a reputed journal but do credit this
author.The presence of common minerals and salts in the water influences the
solubility of silver at microscopic levels as well as the compounds formed by
reaction therein. Therefore water from different sources would behave differently.
However antibacterial and antiviral activity is expected in all samples in which
silver has been placed.

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