Ashok Gadgil on UV Waterworks and Simple Technologies

Image: Ashok Gadgil patent

Not only is Ashok Gadgil a truly brilliant inventor; he's also a delight. Before meeting him, I'd been aware of ultraviolet water treatments, and I'd heard that his UV Waterworks system had perfected the treatment and brought clean drinking water to thousands of people around the world. But that was where my knowledge stopped. I asked Dr. Gadgil if he would give me the "for dummies" version, and here's what I received:

At a conference a few years ago, a moderator asked Gadgil about the simplicity of his ideas, and his response was interesting. "I don't quite agree with calling them simple technologies. They are reliant on and use the best knowledge of science and engineering that we currently have." I think it might be the mark of a truly groundbreaking design that, as soon as you hear about, it's impossible to imagine a world before someone thought of it.

He also explained to me that perfecting the water treatment is only part of the solution; lasting change requires undoing a lot of misinformation about waterborne disease, or as Dr. Gadgil put it, "Telling people that cholera is not caused by walking around in the sun without your hat on." I think he gets to the heart of the question about why some ideas don't meet their potential: invention can happen in isolation; social invention can only happen in a community.