Graphene, the much-hailed wonder material, may be the solution to the world’s water crisis.

One in nine people around the world do not have access to clean, safe water close to their homes and at least 2 billion people are forced to use a drinking water source contaminated with faeces.

Dirty water is a serious public health concern and drinking or washing in dirty water spreads diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid. Contaminated drinking water causes over 500,000 deaths each year from diarrhoea, a leading killer of children under five.

First developed by scientists at the University of Manchester in 2004, graphene, an ultra-strong material composed of a single layer of carbon atoms, has been tipped for many uses from hair dye to super long-life batteries.

But one of the material's most exciting properties may be its ability to filter out even the tiniest impurities in water.

Researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Sydney have recently found a way to turn ordinary cooking oil into graphene to create what they believe is a much more effective filter than standard methods.

Their breakthrough consists of a thin graphene film that attaches to a conventional filter.