FALL 2015
collected over the past four decades by
the U.S. Geological Survey, for example,
25 percent of public groundwater supply
sources in parts of California’s Central
Valley of exceed 10ppb of arsenic, which
became the federal standard in 2008.
Pujol points out that the burden of arsenic
is disproportionately falling on minorities
and residents of lower socioeconomic
status. A 2012 study of community water
systems in the San Joaquin valley showed
that minorities and low-income residents
have higher levels of arsenic in their
drinking water and higher levels of noncompliance with drinking water standards.
Those communities, said Pujol, are likely
to be overlooked by new technologies.
“Innovation in the drinking water
treatment industry, of which there hasn’t
been a lot, has focused on the big profit
centers, which are big water systems in
LA, Chicago, San Francisco, and so on,”
said Pujol. “The smaller places have been
John Pujol and Susan Amrose, Co-Founders of
SimpleWater
left in the dust; they can’t afford to buy
those technologies at smaller scales.”
Pujol said SimpleWater identified Grimes
as the pilot location because it is small
and low-income, but also because it has a
persistent arsenic problem. Grimes’ water
management system is also run by Stuart
Angerer, who works as the environmental
monitoring section chief at the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation in Yuba City and is deeply
interested in technological innovation.
Angerer explained that previous attempts
to remove arsenic from Grimes’ drinking
water were inadequate, and building a
treatment plant would be too expensive.
Yet Angerer noted, “The big thing for
SimpleWater will be getting California
approval from the State Water Resource
Control Board. There’s going to be a lot
of scrutiny and tests, but I am hopeful
because we need innovative approaches
that are simple and save us money.”
Pujol is currently installing an ArsenicVolt
in Grimes in preparation for a six-month
test. He said if the ArsenicVolt gets
government approval, SimpleWater does
not plan to directly sell its invention.
Rather, it would look for a large water
treatment systems company to acquire
the technology and add it to its portfolio
of solutions.
“This was about going after a solution
to a really gnarly problem—dangerous
levels of arsenic in drinking water—and
coming back with a reliable innovation
that can been tested and implemented in
a more rigorous regulatory environment,”
said Pujol. “I believe electrochemistry
can transform the way water is treated in
USAID Mission Engagement
AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN
DIL strengthened its collaboration with the Afghanistan Mission by
successfully leveraging additional resources for the M-Pasandaaz pilot project
that is part of its ICT-A portfolio curated by UC San Diego and the Policy
Design and Evaluation Lab (PDEL). The project is studying the extent to which
a mobile phone-based defined contribution savings account can improve the
financial capabilities and welfare outcomes of salaried employees at Roshan,
Afghanistan’s leading mobile communication provider.
KENYA AND EAST AFRICA MISSION
KENYA
The Rural Electric Power Project (REPP) continues to engage with the Kenya
and East Africa Mission in an effort to measure demand for and impacts of
on-grid electrification. In a randomized trial, the research team is rigorously
measuring the socioeconomic impacts of electricity access for these
households, along with their demand for grid connections and the estimated
costs savings of connecting multiple households simultaneously.
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