Development Marketplace winner SAR is on a roll

Development Marketplace 2006 winner SAR Technology keeps rolling up achievements in its successful fight against arsenic pollution of water.  Shortly after being asked to participate in Development Marketplace's Innovation Fair: Moving Beyond Conflict in Cape Town in April, this pioneer in removing arsenic from groundwater in West Bengal, India, won the $75,000 2010 St. Andrews Prize for the Environment. (SAR's technology innovator Bhaskar Sengupta holds award in photo above.)

The St Andrews Prize, which is given by the University of St Andrews in Scotland and the international energy company ConocoPhillips, drew a record 302 entries from 73 countries.

Weeks before it went to Cape Town, SAR won the 2010 Asian Water Industry Management Award at an event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

In November 2009 SAR's Development Marketplace-financed arsenic removal program in West Bengal was selected as one of the "12 Cases of Cleanup & Success" in the World's Most Polluted Places Report by Blackwell's Institute.  That same month, Sengupta,  Senior Lecturer at Queens University of Belfast who developed SAR's technology, received the Dhirubhai Ambani Award given by the Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Grountwater contamination from naturally occurring arsenic is one of the worst health problems in India, Bangladesh, and Southeast Asia.  Nearly 3 million people in West Bengal alone suffer from arsenic-related diseases, which can include skin cancer.   SAR's low-cost, chemical-free technology, which can be installed by village technicians, removed arsenic from groundwater in six West Bengal locations in higher levels than set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  The project was financed though Development Marketplace's $200,000 award.

At right, photo of SAR Technology arsenic-removing water pump in West Bengal village, from Blackwell's Institute.