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WaterHealth International: Providing Safe Drinking Water to the Bottom of the Pyramid Consumers (Abridged)
The Invention
An outbreak of cholera in West Bengal, India, in 1992 provided the impetus for the development of the UVW technology. Distressed by the loss of human life caused by the epidemic, Ashok Gadgil (Gadgil), an Indian-born senior physicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory of the University of California, began to think about ways in which the issue of water-borne diseases could be addressed. In 1993, he started working evenings and weekends and began his research with a mechanical engineering student and researcher in the Life Sciences Division of Berkeley Lab, Derek Yegian, to devise a system that would disinfect water using UV light. In his initial years, he did not have any funding for his project......... |
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During his research, he found that the UV light could disinfect one ton of contaminated water for five cents. “It took two years to make it simple, simple, simple – and as low-maintenance as possible. It was extraordinarily inexpensive – about 4 cents to 5 cents per person per year. That got me excited. I thought, ‘We can make a profit, but with a social mission,’” said Gadgil. Several scientists were amazed by the technology invented by Gadgil as it was simple yet ingenious, and capable of addressing the water problem in developing countries. ........
