Smart low-tech water filter.

Abul Hussam is a Chemistry Professor at the George Mason University in Virginia. Hussam was born in Bangladesh, and he has spent a large part of his professional life trying to find a solution to a problem caused by well-meaning but unknowing well drilling campaigns in his country. Parts of eastern India and western Bangladesh has high concentrations of arsenic naturally in the underground water-supply. Drilling wells to provide fresh water for the population has on one hand gotten rid of bacteria and virii, but on the other hand exposed people to the arsenic. The problem got a lot of attention during the 1990s when health authorities discovered that while infectious diseases declined, arsenic-related skin ailments and fatal cancers began to increase. Hussam has tested hundreds of prototypes over the years, and SONO, his final construction is smart, simple, virtually maintenance free and can be manufactured locally using local materials. The filtration system consists of three buckets or barrels, where the water passes layers of sand, charcoal, bits of brick, and pieces of a sort of cast iron. Every filter rig has 20 pounds of porous iron that creates a chemical bond to arsenic. The factory in Kushtia, Bangladesh, is now turning out about 200 systems a week at about USD 40:- each. More than 30,000 units have already been distributed.brbr

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