Three media interviews, basketball practice, schoolwork—this is a typical week in Rachel Brouwer’s life.

The 14-year-old also needs to fit in time for her own project: a water pasteurization system she created which kills 100 percent of E. coli in water.

“I don’t have one free night,” Brouwer said.

After a hike in New Hampshire, where she saw several UNSAFE DRINKING WATER signs, Brouwer started thinking about how she could purify dirty water. Her hike in New Hampshire coincided with her reading of “I Am Malala,” the autobiography of Malala Yousafzi, who was 15-years-old when shot by the Taliban for going to school in Pakistan.

“Before that, I never really knew about problems in other countries, I never really thought about it,” Brouwer said. “After reading that book, it completely changed how I think about the world.”

Brouwer knew about an upcoming Halifax science fair, and thought that creating a water pasteurization system could make an interesting project.

She was right. The then 13-year-old won the gold medal in the Canada-Wide Science Fair with her project, “Can We Improve the Quality of Water in Developing and Third World Countries?”

Brouwer’s water pasteurization system contains a wax filter, which is the innovative part of it. The wax changes colour to signal when the user can safely drink the water. When the sun has heated the water enough that it removed the bacteria, the wax will change colour to indicate that the user can safely drink the water. 

Brouwer used specific materials, like charcoal and cotton, for her filtration system because women and girls in third-world countries can access those materials to create their own systems.

“You would think that this is everywhere, this is kind of unnecessary, why wouldn’t the sun just get rid of bacteria?” she said. “If you don’t filter out the dirt particles, then the bacteria can latch on to them and hide inside of them, and the water can become contaminated.”

Charities have already approached Brouwer about bringing her system to countries like Uganda and Kenya.

Brouwer won the Lobster Pitch, an entrepreneurial pitch competition, two years in a row for her invention. Haligonian entrepreneurs judge the competition and help the winner further their project. One entrepreneur showed her how to make a website, which she plans to make in the next few months.

Brouwer was also recently named a young community hero by the Halifax Mooseheads. 

“I’d never been to a hockey game before,” Brouwer said.

At the beginning of November, Brouwer created a GoFundMe page to help her raise $25,000 to patent her system. So far, she has raised $1585.

The funding has no end date, but Brouwer said she intends to check on her funding every month to see how she can increase donations and awareness around her project.

To donate, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f36tvjjs