2007年VOA标准英语-Water Filter Wins Developer Engineering Prize

By Tabinda Naeem
Washington, D.C.
21 May 2007
 

Two years ago, the National Academy of Engineering established the Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability. This $1 million award was designed to challenge the world's scientists to develop a practical system for filtering arsenic¹ from water supplies in the developing world. The winner is a chemist from Bangladesh who now calls the U.S. home. For Urdu TV's Tabinda Naeem, VOA's Jim Bertel introduces us to Abul Hussam.

Arsenic-contaminated drinking water affects tens of millions of people, especially in developing countries where existing water treatment facilities are too expensive for widespread use. To help solve this public health problem, Abul Hussam developed a simple, inexpensive water filter system, an idea that earned him the Grainger Challenge's top prize.

"We analyzed² the water and the first analysis was done with my [family] home [in Bangladesh] that we have been using for 20 years or so,” he told us. “So we analyzed that water and we found arsenic in that well. So, basically, we have been drinking this water for a long time, the family [and] the neighbors.

Born in Bangladesh, Hussam came to the U.S. to earn his doctorate³ in analytical⁴ chemistry. For the past two decades he has taught at George Mason University in the eastern state of Virginia. His passion is environmental research and has spent years working on the arsenic problem, testing hundreds of prototype filtration systems.

The output after water has filtered through two containers that remove any arsenic in it

"Then came along the Grainger Challenge,” he says. “The American engineering community challenged the engineering community in this country as well as the scientists in this country to devise a filtration system that is cheap, basically inexpensive, that will last longer, and it will work without electricity. And also the filtration system should be green, green in the sense that it will not produce any hazardous⁵ waste, solid waste."

His winning innovation is the SONO Filter, a simple, maintenance-free system that uses sand, charcoal⁶, bits of brick, and shards⁷ of porous⁸ iron. The filter removes almost every trace of arsenic from well water.

The World Health Organization reports that half a billion people in South Asia alone are exposed to arsenic-laced well water, but the problem is widespread affecting countries in South America, East Asia and elsewhere.

 

 

 

1 arsenic   

n.砒霜，砷；adj.砷的

参考例句：

• His wife poisoned him with arsenic.他的妻子用砒霜把他毒死了。
• Arsenic is a poison.砒霜是毒药。

2 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 doctorate   

n.(大学授予的)博士学位

参考例句：

• He hasn't enough credits to get his doctorate.他的学分不够取得博士学位。
• Where did she do her doctorate?她在哪里攻读博士？

4 analytical   

adj.分析的；用分析法的

参考例句：

• I have an analytical approach to every survey.对每项调查我都采用分析方法。
• As a result,analytical data obtained by analysts were often in disagreement.结果各个分析家所得的分析数据常常不一致。

5 hazardous   

adj.(有)危险的，冒险的；碰运气的

参考例句：

• These conditions are very hazardous for shipping.这些情况对航海非常不利。
• Everybody said that it was a hazardous investment.大家都说那是一次危险的投资。

6 charcoal   

n.炭，木炭，生物炭

参考例句：

• We need to get some more charcoal for the barbecue.我们烧烤需要更多的碳。
• Charcoal is used to filter water.木炭是用来过滤水的。

7 shards   

n.（玻璃、金属或其他硬物的）尖利的碎片( shard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyewitnesses spoke of rocks and shards of glass flying in the air. 目击者称空中石块和玻璃碎片四溅。 来自辞典例句
• Ward, Josh Billings, and a host of others have survived only in scattered shards of humour. 沃德、比林斯和许多别的作家能够留传下来的只是些幽默的残章断简。 来自辞典例句

8 porous   

adj.可渗透的，多孔的

参考例句：

• He added sand to the soil to make it more porous.他往土里掺沙子以提高渗水性能。
• The shell has to be slightly porous to enable oxygen to pass in.外壳不得不有些细小的孔以便能使氧气通过。