| Winning the Water Problem | | Print | |
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Page 3 of 3 Despite fears about its longevity, he began building and distributing the filter immediately. His brother, a physician in Bangladesh with a knack for chemistry, supervised the manufacture, quality control and distribution of the filter. A second brother, an economist at the Dhaka University, helped to secure funding from international aid groups. Together they distributed some 21,000 filters with another 10,000 to come - enough to help a quarter of a million people. Charles O'Melia, a Professor of Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and chair of the award's selection committee, said the extensive deployment of the filter was a key part in their decision. When asked what his reaction was to receiving the prize, Dr Hussam said that, although he knew he might have a chance, it truly came as a surprise. It solicited a deluge of emails and cards from old colleagues, including his former advisor whose address he had long lost and who was now living in a retirement home. What is perhaps most surprising of all, however, was his decision to give the entire million-dollar prize away. $250,000 will go to funding further research, including for use in the United States where some twenty-five million people drink water with elevated levels of arsenic. $50,000 will go to the University that made his research possible. The remaining $700,000 will go to building more filters, especially for the poor who are unable to purchase them for themselves. His decision to give the money away stems, he says, from the values his father taught him and what he regards as the Islamic vision of science: "I see absolutely no conflict between faith and science." But whereas many have written about the Islam and science discourse at the philosophical level of reason and revelation, for Dr. Hussam the harmony is straightforward. "The Islamic faith means helping people. The goal is the human good." SAMUEL ROSS is Science and Technology editor at Islamica Magazine |