Jay Bryant of The Optimate is on a roll lately.

"Last week, President Bush announced that the water problem in Iraq would be alleviated in two months... In civil-war-plagued Monrovia, Liberia, two days before Bush spoke, the water supply was taken out in a mortar attack, threatening a cholera epidemic. Bodies are reported to be piling up outside the U.S. Embassy. We may be sending troops there soon, and if so, one of the major concerns of logistics planners will be how to supply them with safe potable fluids."

Water is critical. People can fast for several weeks without permanent damage, but a week without water will kill you - and drinking contaminated water can be just as deadly. As Jay notes, however, an astonishing new technology is available that could solve these problems as quickly as a few planeloads of the product - a small "magic" bag with gatorade-like powder in it - could get from here to there. It's called a HydroPack (Hat Tip: Joe Maller), has no moving parts, and combines nano-scale membrane technology with the simple principle of forward osmosis. Just throw it into the dirtiest water you can find, let it fill, then sip from the straw. This is a great water filtration technology that should be rushed into the military and disaster-relief procurement system post-haste. On a larger scale, companies like Zenon Environmental offer containerized membrane solutions suitable for disaster recovery, emergency supply, and even ongoing operations of public water systems. With their lack of moving parts and low maintenance demands, these products offer hope to millions - and their deployment should absolutely be part of the planning for military operations in failed states.