Arsenic contamination of drinking water is a problem for tens of millions of people worldwide, mostly in the developing world.
In this article, Mark Clayton reviews the potential of the latest solutions in development. Finding a way to separate the arsenic from groundwater has proved difficult — the filter must be cheap and easy to make and maintain and local people must want to use it and it must possible to use it in different countries.
Gadgil has received US$250,000 to use the technology to remove arsenic from water in California, and hopes also to test it in Bangladesh or India.
Scientists have recently been given an extra incentive in the form of a US$1 million prize offered to researchers who invent a cheap and sustainable method of filtering arsenic-contaminated water (see US$1 million reward for solution to arsenic problem).