LAWRENCE — Growing up in Lawrence, William Brehm was always doing good deeds in the community.
“Lawrence was a great place to grow up,” said Brehm, a graduate of Lawrence High School.
“The schools were great, the neighborhoods were safe and family-friendly, and there were many ways to get involved.”
Brehm is still getting involved, although this time it’s in an international setting. He is the winner of the Reed Elsevier Environmental Challenge, which awarded his Tagore-SenGupta Foundation $50,000 this spring to pursue a project involving the installation of 12 arsenic-removal units in Cambodia.
Brehm, interviewed for this article by e-mail from Cambodia, is currently employed by This Life Cambodia (TLC) as a research, monitoring and evaluation officer. This Life Cambodia is a nongovernmental organization focused on sustainable community initiatives.
The Reed Elsevier Environmental Challenge rewards innovative ideas for improving access to a safe and sustainable water supply.
Communities routinely mention health problems affecting their development, Brehm said. “In some communities, it is the colorless, odorless arsenic that is causing tremendous health problems,” he said.
That’s why TLC, in partnership with the Tagore-SenGupta Foundation, deemed it necessary to install water filters around Cambodia that could filter arsenic. The system was designed at Lehigh University using the community development strategies learned and refined by TLC, according to Brehm.
Brehm has connections with Lehigh University as well as Asia. He fostered his philanthropic spirit while a sophomore at Lehigh. Then he found a job teaching advanced English to students in Taipei, Taiwan, and continued to teach for three consecutive summers before graduating in 2008 with a degree in international relations. He continued his studies in the Comparative and International Education program and earned a master’s degree in 2010 at Lehigh’s College of Education.
“It was my connection to TLC, the T-S Foundation, and Lehigh University that made this possible,” he said.
He applied for the grant eight months ago. The program will begin in January and will last 18 months, Brehm said.
Brehm’s project, which focuses on removing arsenic in ground-sourced drinking water in Cambodia, is designed to help people living in the Mekong River floodplains in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos who use water contaminated with arsenic at concentrations typically over 20 times the safe limit prescribed by the World Health Organization.
The project involves a system using locally available chemical compounds and reusable sand filters. Ground water is pumped into an overhead tank, chemically stabilized, filtered using reusable arsenic-selective adsorbents, and converted into stable sludge/solids for safe long-term storage.
The arsenic that is removed from the contaminated water is contained and stored to ensure that it doesn’t leach into the environment.
Twelve arsenic-removal units are to be installed in remote villages and schools in Cambodia. The project, using locally available raw materials, is expected to complement traditional methods of water collection. Costs will be shared by users.
Although the project will continue through 2013, Brehm’s future in Cambodia is unclear, he said.
“For the new arsenic filtration program, the goal is to hire exceptional Cambodian staff who can manage the program successfully. It is therefore my goal to make sure a national search is conducted to find the best and brightest Cambodian employees,” Brehm said.
“If my goal is to put myself out of a job, then at some point, yes, I will be jobless and have to return to the States,” said Brehm.
“However,” he said, “the exact date of my unemployment is not known. I would like to see through the new arsenic program, but then again I won’t really be running that program; Cambodians will. The last thing I want to do is get in the way. At this point, I take it day by day.”
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