The Centreville, Virginia, resident has spent much of this career trying to devise a solution to the problem of arsenic contamination of groundwater in eastern India and Bangladesh.
[1] His final innovation is a simple, maintenance-free system that uses sand, charcoal, bits of brick and shards of a type of cast iron.
The wells brought fresh groundwater to farmers and others who previously had been drinking from bacteria- and virus-laced ponds and mudholes.
[2] The 2007 sustainability prize is funded by the Grainger Foundation of Lake Forest, Illinois, and the contest was set up to target the arsenic problem.
Among the criteria for winning was an affordable, reliable and environmentally friendly solution to the arsenic problem that did not require electricity.