Environmental Engineering Reference
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CLEAN WATER FOR THE WORLD
ASHOK GADGIL
I am trained as a physicist. I conduct research at Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory, applying physics to problems of the indoor environ-
ment, such as indoor radon, mostly in the industrial countries, specifically
the United States. However, this essay discusses a specific invention that I
developed over the period 1993-1995, prodded by an outbreak of a mutant
strain of cholera in India, in the state of Bengal.
Even if we know exactly how to engineer a vaccine and manufacture it
on a large scale, it takes about 2 years between the outbreak of a mutant
strain as an epidemic and the market availability of relevant vaccines.Thus,
for 2 years the population is a sitting duck. For example, in May of 1993,
in just one state (Bihar, which borders on Bengal), 2,000 people died
from this mutant strain. First found in Bengal (hence the name “Bengal
cholera”), it quickly spread into adjacent states along India's east coast, into
Bangladesh, then into Thailand. That is about the time I started getting
uneasy that we were not doing anything about it, particularly because I had
been interested in disinfecting drinking water for poor communities in
poor countries for some time.
I had been sending references and literature on the disinfection of drink-
ing water to my colleagues in India, but their responses had been that they
had other things to do. I was saying the same.We had proposals to write and
papers to finish, our bosses had other agendas, we had other agendas, and
nobody had the spare time and energy to tinker around with ideas like
these—particularly without funding.
In the summer of 1993, by a fortunate coincidence, I found a graduate
student who agreed to work with me on this topic. I worked on my own
time and paid the student.We began investigating the disinfection of drink-
ing water.
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