Estimates project that over 650 million people in the world are without access to clean drinking water. Additionally so, 3.4 million people die from water related disease each year.

That’s why one book may be heralded as a beacon of hope for clean water and its education.

The Drinkable Book is a potentially life changing book that not only serves as an educational tool promoting safe water habits, its pages literally purify water. Made on filter paper with food quality ink as its text, the drinkable book starts as a traditional piece of literature that becomes much more. The pages’ filter page can be torn out and placed inside the book’s filtration system. The filter kills off 99 percent of all bacteria in the water, on par with U.S. tap water. So far, tests in Bangladesh, Ghana and South Africa reveals the book’s potential as the project hopes to expand.

The book is the creation of Dr. Teri Dankovich at Carnegie Mellon University.

In just three quick steps, the book is prepared to purify water. Yet, Dr. Dankovich and her team feel the most exciting aspect of the book is its revolutionary potential. At pennies to produce, the book is a cheap solution to a costly issue while each filter can give someone 30 days of water, with each book able to provide four years of clean water.

Though it is far from reaching the masses, The Drinkable Book joins other endeavors like United States President Jimmy Carter’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program as hope for clean water in areas of the world so desperately in need of relief.