Minhaj Chowdhury, cofounder of Drinkwell It distresses Minhaj Chowdhury that thousands die every year from arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh. Although born in Dallas, Texas, in the United States, as a child Chowdhury used to visit Bangladesh every summer with his parents, who emigrated from the South Asian country. It was during these visits that he realized the magnitude of arsenic contamination in the region's water. Chowdhury, 28, sees the widespread contamination of water by arsenic and fluoride in vast swathes of the eastern Indian subcontinent as a personal challenge. Eager to do something about it, he is transforming the crisis into an entrepreneurial opportunity for scores of rural Bangladeshis, and Indians. Cofounder of water technology company Drinkwell, Chowdhury develops water filtration systems for poor communities. They provide safe water by removing dangerously high levels of arsenic and fluoride from groundwater. Despite millions of dollars being spent to address water contamination over the past three decades, more than 48 million people in India and Bangladesh are affected by widespread arsenic poisoning due to drinking water from contaminated underground sources, Chowdhury said. In fact, my grandfather, who passed away before I was born, succumbed to a water-related disease as well. So this huge problem of vast swathes of the country (with) unsafe drinking water was always in the back of my head, said Chowdhury. This is why I decided to study public health in my college (Johns Hopkins University, in the US). In 2009, while still at college, Chowdhury received a grant to distribute 100 water filters in Bangladesh to remove arsenic from groundwater. His team developed filters for household use, but they failed to live up to his expectations. Out of the hundred filters we installed, only three were found to be working when we visited to do a field check about three years later, Chowdhury said. We found the biggest reason why all the 97 (filters) had to be scrapped was that, while the technology worked well, there was no after-sales service for those imported filters. So, when the (filter systems) broke down, there was no one to fix them. He also found that the users, who were largely illiterate, did not know how to properly use and maintain the filters. The other problem was that, since the filters were distributed free, there was no mind-set of spending money on their repair, he said. The next year, Chowdhury tried other methods, such as the installation of filtration plants on thoroughfares. But those too failed to make an impact. That's when I realized that the region needed a uniquely tailored solution for its problems, he said. He returned to Bangladesh as a Fulbright Scholar with BRAC USA, an affiliate of the giant anti-poverty group BRAC (formerly named the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), to understand why his projects continued to fail and to pinpoint the issues driving the failure. In 2012, while attending a conference organized under the Fulbright Program in Kochi, Southwest India, Chowdhury met Indian technologist Dr Arup K Sengupta. A chemical engineering professor at Lehigh University in the US for more than 25 years and a Fulbright Scholar from India, Sengupta had invented a novel filtration technique. (Sengupta's) approach, I found, was more suitable for (tackling) the problems (faced by) Bangladesh and India, because it involved a whole community in setting up a filtration plant, which is either funded by grants or donations or self-funded by the community, Chowdhury said. The users would also buy the water that would pay for the filtration plant's upkeep and maintenance, he said. In May 2013, Chowdhury, along with Sengupta and a few other technocrats, established Drinkwell in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. The company was strategically located near the Bangladesh border. I chose West Bengal to set up the new company because Dr Sengupta was already running a few instances of his invention there, which would help me capitalize on the new technique. I also wanted to take advantage of the enormous market opportunity of providing clean drinking water to rural and peri-urban communities of both West Bengal and Bangladesh that lack access to affordable sources of clean drinking water, he said. Drinkwell's solution is notable, Chowdhury added, for being not only a novel filtration system but also a franchise model that provides employment to poor communities. However, unlike the most commonly used technologies like reverse osmosis where more than 50 percent of the water is wasted, Drinkwell's technology assures 99 percent recovery since the process involves filtration through resin. Running the system is simple too, with the only electrical component being a pump to lift water from the ground to the overhead tank. The rest of the filtration is done completely through the force of gravitation. This (method) works wonders in the energy-starved regions where availability of electricity is irregular, Chowdhury said. Drinkwell is the only company in the world to use a resin-based generable adsorbent to filter water. Each resin filter, according to Drinkwell, lasts about five years and can even self-generate and recharge during the period. Between 2013 and today, we have already installed 32 systems in the region and another 102 projects of various sizes are in the making, said Chowdhury. The projects are funded by United States-India Science & Technology Endowment Fund (USISTEF), an India-US joint initiative for the promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship through the application of science and technology. USISTEF's activities are implemented and administered by the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, established by the Indian and US governments in 2000. The forum granted $400,000 to fund these projects. Drinkwell's capital expenditure is also supported by industrial conglomerates like the Tata Trusts, various aid agencies, and the public health departments of state governments in India and Bangladesh. We never compromise on the operation and quality of the (water filtration) plants. We ensure that the entire system is cash-flow positive from month one, said Chowdhury. In other words, before installing a water filtration system, he ensures there is enough customer demand, so that the system can operate without subsidy. make your own silicone bracelet kitfigured wristbandsdesign rubber braceletsdual layer wristbandslokai rubber bracelet
Service partially resumed after a derailed train near Xinma Station in Yilan county, Taiwan, was removed on Monday. HUANG SHIH-CI/CHINA TIMES Overspeed causes Taiwan deadly train derailment: preliminary investigation A preliminary investigation showed that speeding was the cause to Taiwan's worst train disaster in decades, which claimed 18 lives and left nearly 200 people injured Sunday. An official in charge of the investigation said Monday evening that the express train was going too fast when it entered a section of a curved track, before it ran off tracks in Xinma Station, Yilan County. The radius of the curved rails is about 300 meters with a designated turning speed of 75 kph, but the train was running over 80 kph, and perhaps even over 100 kph when the accident happened. The cause of the speeding, however, still awaits further investigation, the official said. Local procuratorial authority in Yilan has filed a case to the local court for detaining the driver, identified by surname as You, on suspicion of causing deaths by negligence. Two women from Chinese mainland hurt; passengers felt intense shaking on trip Two female passengers from the Chinese mainland were among the injured, the railway authority said. All eight cars of the express train derailed, and three of them overturned. The train, Puyuma Express No 6432, was bound for Taitung from Shulin Station, with 366 passengers aboard. It came off the tracks at 4:50 pm at Xinma Station in Yilan county. Of those who died, the youngest was 9. Two students, aged 12 and 13, from a junior high school in Taitung were also killed. One of the two passengers from the mainland, surnamed Yao, 44, was in critical condition. The other, surnamed Tan, 55, was slightly injured and was discharged from the hospital. Mainland authorities mourned those who died in the derailment and sent condolences to their families, as well as to the injured. The mainland has paid close attention to the accident, according to officials from the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits. Passengers who survived the crash said the train had been shaking intensely during the journey and was going very fast before it derailed. The train stopped twice and we were told that there were problems that needed repair but the train restarted not long after, one passenger, who identified herself as Mrs Chiu, told reporters. We felt that the speed was too fast, then there was a crashing sound and we flew off our seats, she said, adding that many passengers were sleeping at the time. An official from the Taiwan Railways Administration said the train driver had reported a pressure device used for braking had malfunctioned 30 minutes before the accident, but that should not have caused the train to go too fast. The crash, the worst in the Taiwan railway system in more than three decades, happened on a popular line along the island's east coast. Services partially resumed on Monday morning. The Puyuma Express was launched in 2013 to handle the rugged topography of Taiwan's east coast. It is distinct from the high-speed railway that runs along the west coast. The Puyuma trains travel up to 150 kilometers per hour, faster than any other trains in Taiwan except for the high-speed railways. The Taiwan Railways Administration bought the Puyuma from Japan's Nippon Sharyo in 2011 in a 30 billion yen ($260 million) deal. The train that derailed had its most recent inspection and major maintenance work in 2017, Taiwan Railways Administration Director Lu Chie-shen said in a televised news conference. It was at least the third deadly train crash in Taiwan since 2003. A tourist train overturned in the southern mountains in 2011 after a tree fell onto the tracks. Five passengers from the mainland were killed. In another incident, a train on a test run ignored a stop sign and crashed into another in northeastern Taiwan in 2007. Five people were killed. And in 2003, a train derailed near a mountain resort, killing 17 people. Investigators blamed brake failure. Xinhua-AP-AFP
