Hunting for Black Gold

Community Water Works

Cool Alumni

Dean's Digest

Printer-friendly version

Ashok Gadgil is currently developing a simple water filter made of ash coated with a compound that attracts arsenic. (courtesy Berkeley Lab)

Every day, those of us who live in the United States use on average a couple hundred gallons of clean water per person. According to the World Health Organization though, 1.1 billion people around the world lack access to safe water. Dirty drinking water is to blame for approximately 240 child deaths every hour, almost all of them occurring in developing nations. In the next few months though, technology developed by Berkeley Lab scientist Ashok Gadgil will bring clean, low-cost water to 25,000 residents of 10 Indian villages, demonstrating one way that this massive health problem might be addressed worldwide. Just don't call it charity.

"The only way this kind of thing can be sustainable is if it makes financial sense for everyone involved," says Gadgil, a member of the lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division.

Water taps at one of the new Andhra Pradesh water stores. (courtesy WHI)

Several years ago, Gadgil developed a novel water purification system that kills disease-causing microorganisms using ultraviolet light. The University of California licensed the technology to WaterHealth International, a southern California-based company that markets the systems around the globe. Already, the product, called UV Waterworks, is used to prepare water for sale by local entrepreneurs at urban stores in the Philippines . And in February, the first water store opened in a rural village in the Andhra Pradesh state on the eastern coast of India .

"It was amazing when I saw the first photos of these villagers carrying four gallon jugs of disinfected water that they bought for two cents," Gadgil says. "They can now demand quality because they're paying for it."

WaterHealth International's UV Waterworks system. (Photo by Robert Couto, CSO)

Over the next few months, WaterHealth International's community water systems will be installed in villages that have agreed to pay for the treated water as part of a pilot project. A local non-profit organization, the Naandi Foundation, will train local technicians and educate the public on the need for safe water and good sanitation.

"We team up with local organizations because they understand the language and the culture," Gadgil says. "People in the villages trust them."

Pathogens that thrive in drinking water cause debilitating and potentially deadly diseases like cholera, dysentery, and diarrhea. In the Andhra Pradesh region, diarrhea alone causes about 70,000 deaths each year. Gadgil's system kills the microbes by channeling the contaminated water under an ultraviolet light source suspended in a reflective dome. If traditional electrical power is not available, the low-power UV Waterworks system can draw its juice from car batteries or solar panels.

According to Gadgil, a single community water system can provide a village of up to 3000 people 10 liters of safe water per person each day, adding up to an annual water bill of approximately $2 per individual. The proceeds will cover the purchase of the UV system along with pumps, tanks, valves, controllers, civil structures, and maintenance. Besides periodic cleaning and upkeep of the filters and pump, the only expected maintenance "is for someone to change the ultraviolet lightbulb once a year," Gadgil says.

The Andhra Pradesh pilot project is partially funded by GlobalGiving, an online service that's something like a matchmaking service for donors to directly help fund social, environmental, and economic development projects. The safe drinking water effort was one of five projects that split $100,000 in prize money awarded by GlobalGiving and the Global Philanthropy Forum, a project of the World Affairs Council of Northern California. On a broader scale, Gadgil's work dovetails with the College of Engineering 's efforts to harness technology for sustainable development.

Bicyclists pick up bottles of clean water to deliver to villagers. (courtesy WHI)

"Through organizations such as Engineers for a Sustainable World, many Berkeley students are using their vacations to design and implement water purification projects in places like the slums of Bombay ," says Thomas Kalil, Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Science and Technology. "Dean Richard Newton and I are committed to providing even more Berkeley students an opportunity to participate in these kinds of high-impact projects by launching a 'Technology Peace Corps.' Ashok's work and related research by Berkeley engineering faculty are powerful examples of technology being used to improve the human condition."

Gadgil's eyes light up with excitement as he clicks through digital snapshots emailed by his WaterHealth International colleagues who spent weeks in the villages getting the system operational. One photo depicts villagers holding sheets of perforated certificates that they exchange for refills. Another shows children on bicycles toting jugs of water.

"Now a secondary industry has developed where kids will deliver your water so you don't have to carry it back from the store," he says.

Do you have a comment or question regarding this research? We want to hear from you...

As water from the Andhra Pradesh project begins to flow, Gadgil has begun development of a new kind of water filter that could help millions of Bangladeshis. Resembling a tea bag, the filter is a pouch filled with powder derived from coal ash that sifts out the poisonous arsenic tainting so many Bangladeshi water sources. Gadgil estimates that the filters would cost about 30 cents per person per year.

"I get the most satisfaction from applying the advanced science and engineering that so many of us know to help people who don't have those kinds of resources," he says. "The potential for societal impact really fires up my passion."

Global Giving: Safe drinking water for rural communities

"Water Filter Could Help Millions of Bangladeshis" by Dan Krotz (Berkeley Lab Research news, January 21, 2005)

WaterHealth International

"Innovative Lives: Ashok Gadgil" by Martha Davidson (Smithsonian Institution's Lemelson Center)

Naandi Foundation

Lab Notes is published online by the Marketing and Communications Office of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering. The Lab Notes mission is to illuminate groundbreaking research underway today at the College of Engineering that will dramatically change our lives tomorrow.

Media contact: Teresa Moore, Lab Notes editor, Director of Marketing and Communications
Writer, Researcher: David Pescovitz
Web Manager: Michele Foley

Subscribe or send comments to the Engineering Marketing and Communications Office: lab-notes@coe.berkeley.edu.

© 2005 UC Regents. Updated 4/1/05.