naturallyoccurring arsenic contamination has been discovered in groundwater in argentina mexico china cambodia india bangladesh and the united states in most areas especially in developing countries surface water is severely contaminated leaving no viable alternative source for drinking bangladesh and india are the most affected with over 60 million people exposed to high levels of arsenic substantially above the maximum contaminant level mcl recommended by the world health organisation who longterm exposure to arsenic in drinking water can lead to dermatologic neurologic vascular and carcinogenic effects that can result in amputations or death a recent decadelong cohort study reported that 213 of all deaths 1 in 5 in bangladesh are attributable to arsenic exposure from drinking water brian busch an mba student from haas school of business at university of california berkeley ucb is working with a group of researchers at the lawrence berkeley national lab lbnl including the chief technologist behind water health international to design and implement an arsenic remediation technology in west bengal busch says lbnl researchers have developed a reliable lowcost technology to neutralise high levels of arsenic in water he further elaborates on the technology saying the basic process electrochemical arsenic remediation ecar as it is called is a specific application of a relatively wellknown chemical process the innovations developed by the lbnl team have made this technology cheap and reliable ideal for rural populations most affected moreover the researchers are committed to developing the technology to serve low income areas in west bengal that suffer from high levels of naturallyoccurring arsenic in the groundwater thus the objective of the project is to design a sustainable solution and find the best way to deploy the technology in affected areas my role is to develop the business model analyse potential synergies by partnering with existing companies and look for ways to overcome anticipated challenges during implementation he adds busch has already met the research team to review the information they have gathered about the technology so far he plans to visit the village in west bengal amirabad where the prototype is installed as well as meet collaborators at jadavpur university centre for global change this month while the technology is still being refined it compares favourably with other arsenic remediation technologies currently available moreover one of the key researchers professor ashok gadgil has successfully deployed clean water technology in the past with water health international thus i am confident that we can design a feasible solution adds busch deploying this technology will not only produce clean arsenicfree drinking water it will also produce new job opportunities and will educate people about the latent dangers of contaminated water in addition the team has already taken some steps to explore new business models that could prove advantageous in terms of taking this technology to scale i had been looking for opportunities to spend the summer working with earlystage ventures and if possible spend some time in india theres a lot of activity on the social entrepreneurship front i