Engineering Change: Finding Clean Water for the Slums of Buenos Aires

From CNET News.com:

Rebeca Hwang was 11 years old the first time she treated contaminated water. It flowed clear and cold from the taps of her family home in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She recalls herself, a pigtailed, South Korean native, watching her nanny and mother dribble cholera-killing bleach into 12 liters of boiled water, the daily supply for Hwang's family. For two years, the Hwangs, along with millions of other families in South America, cooked with, cleaned with, and drank these bleach solutions to outpace a nearly continent-wide cholera epidemic. The later realization that developed nations had avoided the 1991 epidemic thanks to advanced resources spurred Hwang, now 27, to design water treatment technology for regions in dire need. With undergraduate and graduate engineering degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hwang has gotten to know the ins and outs of treatment ecosystems in rural India and Nicaragua, from designing advanced, yet affordable filtration devices, to monitoring improvement levels. In her work, she has scooped samples from wells and streams so visibly tainted, the thought of them still makes her queasy.

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