Two Minnesota men have invented a tool to help combat a public health scourge tearing through earthquake-ravaged Haiti: A solar-powered water pasteurizer.

The Minneapolis Pioneer Press reports retired engineers Bob Nepper of North St. Paul and Bill Stevenson of Lake Elmo devised the contraption to confront the cholera epidemic by cleaning water in an easy and inexpensive manner. A Florida missionary group has purchased a pasteurizer and plans on taking it to the island, where more than 2,200 Haitians have died of Cholera during the past several months.

"I have great sympathy for the Third World and children," Stevenson said. "If they had good water, they wouldn't be in the hospital. It's so easy to fix."

Having met in the late 1990s via a mutual friend, the two have devised additional inventions over the years but none has been as popular as the pasteurizer. Dirty water is filtered through a cloth as it enters. Then it runs through a feed tube beside the solar panel, which is painted black to maximize heat.

When the water reaches the pasteurization temperature of 160 degrees it is released and ready for use.