Purifaid

Purifaid is located in San Francisco, United States on infinite loop. Purifaid is rated 3 out of 5 in the category biotechnology in United States. In the 1970s, NGO’s with good intentions decided to install tube wells in rural Bangladesh to provide an alternative to disease-carrying surface water. Alas, what these development organizations did not realize was the tube wells were dug into soil laden with extremely high levels of arsenic, a colorless and odorless carcinogenic toxin. Today an estimated 11 million wells serve a population of 160 million people. In a study of 12,000 Bangladeshis over a 10-year period published in the Lancet in 2010, US researchers found that more than 20 percent of deaths in Bangladesh were caused by arsenic exposure from contaminated drinking water. As the population has grown throughout the decades, the arsenic epidemic is getting worse, and attempts to mitigate the disaster have been unsuccessful. The World Bank estimates that, without effective action, by mid-century the arsenic crisis could cost Bangladesh up to $88 billion in output lost to death and disease. The arsenic crisis exacerbates social and gender inequalities and threatens the development prospects of tens of millions of people.