Minhaj Chowdhury, cofounder of Drinkwell It distresses Minhaj Chowdhury that thousands die every year from arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh. Although born in Dallas, Texas, in the United States, as a child Chowdhury used to visit Bangladesh every summer with his parents, who emigrated from the South Asian country. It was during these visits that he realized the magnitude of arsenic contamination in the region's water. Chowdhury, 28, sees the widespread contamination of water by arsenic and fluoride in vast swathes of the eastern Indian subcontinent as a personal challenge. Eager to do something about it, he is transforming the crisis into an entrepreneurial opportunity for scores of rural Bangladeshis, and Indians. Cofounder of water technology company Drinkwell, Chowdhury develops water filtration systems for poor communities. They provide safe water by removing dangerously high levels of arsenic and fluoride from groundwater. Despite millions of dollars being spent to address water contamination over the past three decades, more than 48 million people in India and Bangladesh are affected by widespread arsenic poisoning due to drinking water from contaminated underground sources, Chowdhury said. In fact, my grandfather, who passed away before I was born, succumbed to a water-related disease as well. So this huge problem of vast swathes of the country (with) unsafe drinking water was always in the back of my head, said Chowdhury. This is why I decided to study public health in my college (Johns Hopkins University, in the US). In 2009, while still at college, Chowdhury received a grant to distribute 100 water filters in Bangladesh to remove arsenic from groundwater. His team developed filters for household use, but they failed to live up to his expectations. Out of the hundred filters we installed, only three were found to be working when we visited to do a field check about three years later, Chowdhury said. We found the biggest reason why all the 97 (filters) had to be scrapped was that, while the technology worked well, there was no after-sales service for those imported filters. So, when the (filter systems) broke down, there was no one to fix them. He also found that the users, who were largely illiterate, did not know how to properly use and maintain the filters. The other problem was that, since the filters were distributed free, there was no mind-set of spending money on their repair, he said. The next year, Chowdhury tried other methods, such as the installation of filtration plants on thoroughfares. But those too failed to make an impact. That's when I realized that the region needed a uniquely tailored solution for its problems, he said. He returned to Bangladesh as a Fulbright Scholar with BRAC USA, an affiliate of the giant anti-poverty group BRAC (formerly named the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), to understand why his projects continued to fail and to pinpoint the issues driving the failure. In 2012, while attending a conference organized under the Fulbright Program in Kochi, Southwest India, Chowdhury met Indian technologist Dr Arup K Sengupta. A chemical engineering professor at Lehigh University in the US for more than 25 years and a Fulbright Scholar from India, Sengupta had invented a novel filtration technique. (Sengupta's) approach, I found, was more suitable for (tackling) the problems (faced by) Bangladesh and India, because it involved a whole community in setting up a filtration plant, which is either funded by grants or donations or self-funded by the community, Chowdhury said. The users would also buy the water that would pay for the filtration plant's upkeep and maintenance, he said. In May 2013, Chowdhury, along with Sengupta and a few other technocrats, established Drinkwell in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. The company was strategically located near the Bangladesh border. I chose West Bengal to set up the new company because Dr Sengupta was already running a few instances of his invention there, which would help me capitalize on the new technique. I also wanted to take advantage of the enormous market opportunity of providing clean drinking water to rural and peri-urban communities of both West Bengal and Bangladesh that lack access to affordable sources of clean drinking water, he said. Drinkwell's solution is notable, Chowdhury added, for being not only a novel filtration system but also a franchise model that provides employment to poor communities. However, unlike the most commonly used technologies like reverse osmosis where more than 50 percent of the water is wasted, Drinkwell's technology assures 99 percent recovery since the process involves filtration through resin. Running the system is simple too, with the only electrical component being a pump to lift water from the ground to the overhead tank. The rest of the filtration is done completely through the force of gravitation. This (method) works wonders in the energy-starved regions where availability of electricity is irregular, Chowdhury said. Drinkwell is the only company in the world to use a resin-based generable adsorbent to filter water. Each resin filter, according to Drinkwell, lasts about five years and can even self-generate and recharge during the period. Between 2013 and today, we have already installed 32 systems in the region and another 102 projects of various sizes are in the making, said Chowdhury. The projects are funded by United States-India Science & Technology Endowment Fund (USISTEF), an India-US joint initiative for the promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship through the application of science and technology. USISTEF's activities are implemented and administered by the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, established by the Indian and US governments in 2000. The forum granted $400,000 to fund these projects. Drinkwell's capital expenditure is also supported by industrial conglomerates like the Tata Trusts, various aid agencies, and the public health departments of state governments in India and Bangladesh. We never compromise on the operation and quality of the (water filtration) plants. We ensure that the entire system is cash-flow positive from month one, said Chowdhury. In other words, before installing a water filtration system, he ensures there is enough customer demand, so that the system can operate without subsidy. wristbands canadacustom silicone bracelets canadarubber bracelets canadasilicone bracelets canadasilicone wristbands canadacustom wristbands canadacanadian wristbandswristbands canada
Chinese herb tea. [Photo/VCG] Yangsheng, or nurturing life, is a core component of traditional Chinese medicine that puts paramount emphasis on the prevention of illness and fostering health and well-being. Typically, it is middle-aged or older people who follow certain rules of yangsheng, such as doing tai chi or sipping tea. However, yangsheng has lately become a fad among younger Chinese people. By balancing the indulgences of modern life with the health tips of their grandparents, they have created what has been dubbed punk yangsheng in an attempt to maintain both good health and their lifestyle. As young people gradually take more responsibility in society, they are paying attention to their health, taking note of the harm that some of their habits can bring and trying to reduce the risks while still enjoying their vices. According to yangsheng, goji tea is good for the liver, so young people drink plenty of goji tea if they stay up to go barhopping. Women who are menstruating should eat jujubes to enrich the blood and avoid cold food, so young women eat jujube ice cream. After eating spicy Sichuan hot pot, they drink plenty of chrysanthemum tea. According to e-commerce giant Alibaba's 2017 health consumption report, more than 50 percent of health product buyers are under 30. The report found that young buyers tended to search for healthy foods that need little to no preparation, such as honey, goji berries and donkey-hide gelatin, reflecting their desire to stay healthy without making too much effort. Qian Xudong, 26, from Karamay, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, started to practice yangsheng in college, when he began to gain weight and started to feel weak from playing video games day and night. He started running every morning because traditional Chinese medicine says that's the best time to exercise. He also tried acupuncture and started to eat only fresh, healthy food. In two months, my weight dropped from 82 to 68 kilograms, he said. However, Qian, a government worker, still holds on to some unhealthy habits such as frequently attending dinner parties and eating snacks late at night with his friends. He said he's aware that one of the most effective ways to lose weight is to get adequate sleep, but he likes hanging out with friends. In an attempt to counteract that, he sometimes sleeps for a couple of hours before going out. I then return home at around 2 am and sleep till 8 am, he said. Zhu Qingwen, a professor at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, said while it is good for young people to follow yangsheng rules and pay more attention to their health, the punk yangsheng style may do more harm than good. The best way to stay healthy is to avoid staying up late, not drinking plenty of goji tea after staying up barhopping. When people damage their health, no matter how hard they try to make up for it, the damage already exists. The best way to stay healthy is to give up their bad habits, he said. While some young Chinese are practicing punk yangsheng, others are taking the traditional practice more seriously. In the case of Li Yong, a third-year graduate student at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, his yangsheng lifestyle is more orthodox than punk. Li sees yangsheng as part of Chinese culture and has formed habits that he says are healthy. At the start of autumn, he stops drinking cold beverages and starts taking foot baths every day. He also practices acupuncture on himself frequently and attends an acupuncture club at the school where students practice acupuncture on each other. I also drink plenty of jujube tea, goji tea and chrysanthemum tea, and take traditional Chinese medicines that are good for my liver, kidney, spleen and stomach. He runs every morning and sometimes he also practices tai chi and qigong exercises. For me, yangsheng is a lifestyle that has been passed on through generations. It is a scientific way of living, he said. Li said young people should pay more attention to improving their physical health, and yangsheng is an effective way to do so.
