A team of researchers led by Dr. Mark Sobsey has received the International Water Association’s 2008 Project Innovation Award for their research endeavor, "Ceramic Water Filters in Cambodia: A Sustainable Solution for Rural Drinking Water Treatment." The project is one of the Gillings Innovation Laboratories at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s (UNC) School of Public Health.

Dr. Sobsey, Kenan Distinguished University Professor of environmental sciences and engineering in the UNC School of Public Health, accepted the honor at the Association’s East Asian and Pacific Awards Ceremony on June 26 in Singapore.

Dr. Joe Brown, a recent graduate of the UNC doctoral program in environmental sciences and engineering and current faculty member at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, proposed the original water purification project and worked with Dr. Sobsey and others to initiate and field-test it in Cambodian homes.

After successful testing, Drs. Sobsey, Brown and others established the Carolina Global Water Partnership, a research collaboration between UNC’s School of Public Health and its Kenan-Flagler Business School, which is exploring ways to commercialize household water treatment technologies in developing countries.

The Global Water Partnership is one of seven Gillings Innovation Laboratories (GILs) established thus far at the UNC School of Public Health.

"We know that biosand and ceramic filters and other household water treatment technologies make an enormous difference in the health of people who don’t have access to clean drinking water," Dr. Sobsey has said.  

The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 2 million children die each year from diarrhea and related illnesses caused by unsafe drinking water and inadequate hygiene and sanitation.

"We have the technologies, but now it’s a matter of finding ways to get these technologies into communities and households, and have people adopt and use them effectively and sustainably," he added.

"We were pleased to receive recognition for this project," Dr. Brown said.  "Our research has shown that locally produced ceramic water filters can be an effective long-term solution to contaminated drinking water at the household level."

In his application for the award, Dr. Brown had noted, "Locally produced ceramic water filters are a new technology in Cambodia.  This project provides the first systematic, field-based assessment of the technology’s sustainability as a drinking water treatment intervention."

The filters are now used by an estimated 100,000 Cambodian households for treatment of drinking water, resulting in a 98 percent reduction of E. coli and a 46 percent decrease in diarrhea.

Dr. Michael Aitken, professor and chair of the School of Public Health’s department of environmental sciences and engineering, said he was thrilled that the innovative work being done by Dr. Sobsey and his students was being recognized.

"We are particularly proud," Dr. Aitken said, "that our former PhD student, Joe Brown, led this project and has gone on to continue his work as a faculty member at the University of Alabama. Receiving this international award reflects the high quality of research on drinking water for which UNC is known, a reputation that Professor Sobsey has helped to establish."

"We are very proud of Drs. Sobsey and Brown," agreed Dean Barbara K. Rimer of the UNC School of Public Health and Alumni Distinguished Professor of health policy and administration.

"I am especially pleased," Dean Rimer said, "that the award recognizes the team’s use of low-cost, sustainable technologies to address the water problem. Their deceptively simple innovation could have a profound impact on public health."

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