• 09.20.07 Aquaya is evaluating water, sanitation, and hygiene improvement programs in Southern India
• 06.01.07 Alicia Gray joins Aquaya staff
• 05.05.07 Aquaya announces the addition of two new directors, Robert Herdt and Ruma Bose
• 03.15.07 Aquaya to conduct study of end-user preferences and usage of household water treatment technologies in rural Western Kenya with UC Berkeley
• 01.22.07 Medley Advisors partner John Goldstein and Green Stamp America's Ian Warburg joins Aquaya board of directors
• 01.10.07 Genentech CFO David Ebersman joins the Aquaya advisory board
• 01.08.07 Aquaya to assist PSI in community targeting for the social marketing of PUR in Kenya
• 11.10.06 Mulago Foundation provides grant to Aquaya; Ranjiv Khush selected as Rainer Arnhold Fellow
• 11.10.06 The Lemelson Foundation funds Aquaya to develop next-generation drinking water treatment device
• 10.21.06 David Rich steps down from Aquaya staff, joins Board of Directors
• 10.17.06 The World Health Organization asks Aquaya to develop guidance materials on Impact Assessment of Water and Sanitation Interventions
• 09.05.06 Aquaya principals Ranjiv Khush and Jeff Albert present talks at the International Water Association's World Water Congress in Beijing
• 05.31.06 Aquaya responds to the Central Java Earthquake
• 04.15.06 Peter Kozodoy joins Aquaya
• 04.01.06 The University of Bristol contracts Aquaya to join the EU-funded Aquatest research team
• 09.25.05 Indonesian NGO Yayasan Dian Desa joins Aquaya to Distribute Procter & Gamble's PUR Purifier of Water in turbid water settings
• 06.02.05 Aquaya principals Ranjiv Khush and Jeff Albert attend the third annual meeting of the World Health Organization-sponsored International Network on Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS) in Bangkok
• 04.15.05 Aquaya and Johns Hopkins Center for Communications Programs to oversee commercial distribution for Procter & Gamble's PUR® Purifier of Water in Indonesia

Aquaya is evaluating water, sanitation, and hygiene improvement programs in Southern India.

09.20.07 San Francisco, CA and Berkeley, CA — Aquaya, in collaboration with Professor Jack Colford and his team at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health will evaluate the health impacts and sustainability of water, sanitation, and hygiene programs in Tamil Nadu, Southern India. The year-long study will compare villages that received the water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions with villages that did not in order to evaluate impacts on child health, school attendance, household and community water quality, and other socio-economic factors. This epidemiological study is funded by the Agora Foundation.

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Alicia Gray joins Aquaya staff.

06.01.07. Aquaya welcomes Alicia Gray as our latest staff member. Alicia brings extensive experience in the water and sanitation sector to Aquaya, ranging from program implementation in Latin America to program evaluation in Asia. Alicia also holds Master's degrees in Public Health and Environmental Management from Yale University. Alicia's primary responsibilities at Aquaya will include the management of impact assessment programs.

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Aquaya announces the addition of two new directors, Robert Herdt and Ruma Bose.

05.05.07. Aquaya is happy to announce the addition of two new members to its Board of Directors. Dr. Robert Herdt is International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, Adjunct at Cornell University. Prior to joining Cornell, Bob served as Vice President of the Rockefeller Foundation. Bob brings considerable experience in International Development to the Aquaya Board, including work with agricultural research institutions in India and the Philippines.

Ruma Bose has combined a successful career as a business entrepreneur with a dedication to social empowerment in developing countries. In addition to founding a chemical products and services company, Ruma serves on the board of several non-profit organizations. Ruma’s interests and skills will contribute greatly to Aquaya’s organizational development.

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Aquaya to conduct study of end-user preferences and usage of household water treatment technologies in rural Western Kenya with UC Berkeley

03.15.07. San Francisco, CA and Berkeley, CA — Aquaya and UC Berkeley are jointly designing a study to understand influences on consumer choice, usage, satisfaction, and willingness-to-pay for competing household water treatment devices. This research will be taking place in Siaya District of Western Kenya, in collaboration with local partners and the Emory University Center for Global Safe Water. "Very little robust evidence exists of how consumers in low-income countries make decisions regarding water treatment in the home. We hope to make a contribution that will enable water-related products and services to reach more significant scale than they have in the past," remarked Aquaya principal Jeff Albert.

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Medley Advisors partner John Goldstein and Green Stamp America's Ian Warburg join Aquaya board of directors

01.22.07. Aquaya is very pleased to announce two new additions to our Board of Directors. John Goldstein is General Partner of Medley Capital Management, a direct credit lending fund that specializes in corporate and asset lending to growth companies that are making positive contributions to environmental, transportation, finance, and other sectors.

Ian Warburg is on the management team of Green Stamp America, Inc. (GSA), a diversified investment and management company which oversees a broad spectrum of business interests including the US-based investment activities of the Tokyo-based Green Stamp Group of companies.

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Genentech CFO David Ebersman joins the Aquaya advisory board

01.10.07. Aquaya is proud to announce that Genentech CFO David Ebersman has joined its advisory board. David joined Genentech in 1994 as a business development analyst, and during the next several years he was promoted to positions of increasing responsibility in Business Development, Product Development and Product Operations. He was appointed senior vice president and CFO in March 2005, and January 2006, was promoted to executive vice president.

"The Aquaya team's emphasis on getting water and sanitation innovations to those in need has great appeal to me, given my involvement in biotechnology and its application to the fight against disease," commented David.

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Aquaya to assist PSI in community targeting for the social marketing of PUR in Kenya

01.08.07. San Francisco, CA and Washington, DC — Aquaya will assist Population Services International (PSI), the world's leading social marketing organization, in its efforts to commercially distribute the PUR Purifier of Water in Kenya. Aquaya is building a GIS data system incorporating satellite imagery, digital survey information, and PSI's own sales data to support sales targeting in surface-water reliant communities. Financial support for this work comes from the Procter & Gamble Fund.

"PSI is a recognized leader in social marketing, and we are eager to provide additional tools to advance PSI's mission of delivering health-beneficial products and services to those in need," remarked Aquaya principal Jeff Albert.

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Mulago Foundation provides grant to Aquaya; Ranjiv Khush selected as Rainer Arnhold Fellow

11.10.06. San Francisco, CA and New York, NY — The Mulago Foundation has provided Aquaya with a substantial grant to support its efforts to deliver water and sanitation to end-users in developing countries. As part of this grant, Aquaya principal Ranjiv Khush has been selected as a 2007-08 Rainer Arnhold Fellow. Focused on the problems and opportunities of the rural Third World, the Rainer Arnhold Fellows Program teaches emerging leaders how to translate good ideas into lasting change that will go to scale. Kevin Starr, MD, the Executive Director of the Mulago Foundation and the Rainer Arnhold Fellowship remarked: "The Aquaya team has figured out how to turn technology into change - how to get the right solutions to the right people in the right way. They represent a remarkable combination of skills, knowledge, and creativity, and are committed to creating - and measuring - lasting impact. We’re delighted to be able to fund them."

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The Lemelson Foundation funds Aquaya to develop next-generation drinking water treatment device

11.10.06. San Francisco, CA and Portland, OR — The Portland, Oregon-based Lemelson Foundation has provided Aquaya with a grant to develop a household water treatment device using quaternary ammonium silane (QAS) antimicrobial coatings. QASs, initially developed in the 1970s, are currently used in a wide variety of antimicrobial consumer products but have not been applied to point-of-use water treatment. By coating water containers, container inserts, and simple filters with QAS, Aquaya intends to provide low-income consumers with effective, inexpensive, easy-to-use, and locally manufactured alternatives to current water purification measures. During this pilot phase, Aquaya will pursue technology development in the laboratory and field evaluation of prototypes, and will begin developing plans for commercialization with private-sector partners.

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David Rich steps down from Aquaya staff, joins Board of Directors

10.21.06. David Rich has agreed to continue to work with Aquaya as a Director. After helping to build Aquaya’s for almost one-year as a staff member, David’s commitments to other projects and his family in Connecticut have led him to resign his position. We are happy to announce, however, that David has agreed to continue to share his skills and experience in developing and implementing entrepreneurial solutions to poverty alleviation as a member of Aquaya’s Board of Directors.

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The World Health Organization asks Aquaya to develop guidance materials on Impact Assessment of Water and Sanitation Interventions

10.17.06. San Francisco, CA and Geneva, Switzerland — The World Health Organization (WHO) has enlisted Aquaya to draft guidance materials for the assessment of health impacts of water and sanitation interventions. Aquaya will develop these materials collaboratively with Prof. Tom Clasen of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). "There is profound need for robust analysis of health outcomes of ongoing water and sanitation interventions. We are excited by the opportunity to produce guidance for WHO and deeply fortunate for the opportunity to work with Tom Clasen, who is among the leaders in this field," reported Aquaya principal Ranjiv Khush.

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Aquaya principals Ranjiv Khush and Jeff Albert present talks at the International Water Association's World Water Congress in Beijing

09.05.06. Beijing, China — Aquaya's Ranjiv Khush and Jeff Albert each delivered presentations at the International Water Association (IWA) World Water Congress in Beijing.

Jeff's talk was included in the World Health Organization (WHO) session on scaling-up household water treatment interventions. It dealt specifically with using census and GIS data for market segmentation purposes. Ranjiv's talk was part of the Aquatest consortium's session at the conference, and addressed advanced, non-plating-based assays for microbial pathogen detection.

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Aquaya responds to the Central Java Earthquake

05.31.06. Yogyakarta, Indonesia — The Aquaya Institute is responding to the magnitude 6.1 earthquake that struck the central portions of the Indonesian island of Java on 27 May and left over 6,000 Javanese dead and over one million homeless. Aquaya principal Jeff Albert, who has been on the ground in and around Yogyakarta for the past month as part of Aquaya's work with the Indonesian NGO Yayasan Dian Desa (YDD), was part of a YDD-led team that was among the earliest responders to the disaster.

"Thankfully, the road infrastructure is largely intact, and we have been able to both assess and provide relief supplies more quickly than typically occurs in disasters of this magnitude," reported Jeff. "YDD has tremendous capacity, and it has been able to mobilize literally hundreds of personnel to distribute water, food, basic household items, and other relief supplies." Aquaya personnel have been working with YDD and the Canadian NGO Global Medic to produce 10,000 liters of safe water per day using a donated compact filtration/UV irradiation unit.

The Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is now funding YDD and Aquaya to provide recovery services to the victims over the next several months.

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Peter Kozodoy joins Aquaya

04.15.06. San Francisco, CA and Washington, DC — Peter Kozodoy, a PhD electrical engineer and veteran of several technology start-ups, has joined Aquaya as a principal. Peter comes to Aquaya following an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Policy Fellowship at the office of the Science Advisor to the US Secretary of State in Washington, DC. Peter will lead Aquaya's activities in technology development.

"We are both thrilled and extremely fortunate to add Peter Kozodoy to the Aquaya team," said fellow Aquaya principal Jeff Albert. Peter has several patents and a proven track record in product development. He remarked: "I am excited to be pursuing engineering work in the critically important area of safe drinking water, and delighted to be joining Jeff and Ranjiv in building The Aquaya Institute."

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The University of Bristol contracts Aquaya to join the EU-funded Aquatest research team

04.01.06. A consortium of European, African, and American researchers led by Dr. Stephen Gundry at the University of Bristol has been funded by the European Union to develop a low-cost water test to determine the microbial safety of drinking water in developing world communities. The consortium's project, called Aquatest, brings together partners from 13 different institutions.

"This is a fantastic opportunity for Aquaya to feed its expertise in diagnostics technology into a collaborative product development scoping study," said Aquaya principal Ranjiv Khush. During this one-year pilot study, Aquaya will lead the advanced technology assessment component of the Aquatest project.

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Indonesian NGO Yayasan Dian Desa joins Aquaya to Distribute Procter & Gamble's PUR® Purifier of Water in turbid water settings

09.25.05. Yogyakarta, Indonesia — The internationally renowned Indonesian appropriate technology organization Yayasan Dian Desa (YDD) will join Aquaya in the PURelief program. Founded in 1971 by Pak Anton Soedjarwo, winner of the 1983 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, YDD has been delivering safe water, sanitation, agricultural, and environmental innovations to communities throughout Indonesia for decades.

YDD will lead efforts in both community mobilization and product distribution for PUR®, with Aquaya providing technical assistance. "We feel truly privileged to be working with as established, experienced, and proven an organization as Yayasan Dian Desa. Few groups understand the needs and aspirations of the rural and peri-urban poor of Indonesia as well as YDD, and we hope to learn and build on their experience," said Jeff Albert, Aquaya principal.

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Aquaya principals Ranjiv Khush and Jeff Albert attend the third annual meeting of the World Health Organization-sponsored International Network on Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS) in Bangkok

06.02.05. Bangkok, Thailand — Ranjiv Khush and Jeff Albert of Aquaya joined dozens of public health researchers, NGOs, government officials, and private companies at the third annual meeting of the WHO (World Health Organization) sponsored International Network on Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS) in Bangkok. The meeting focused on two major areas: (1) field and laboratory studies of technology effectiveness and (2) educational and motivational approaches to improve adoption of HWTS measures by target communities.

Presentations at the meeting ranged from reports of randomized controlled field studies of disease reduction to introductions of new technologies and distribution methods. Initial discussions among some meeting participants also occurred around the need for a low-cost water test for developing country contexts.

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Aquaya and Johns Hopkins Center for Communications Programs to oversee commercial distribution for Procter & Gamble's PUR® Purifier of Water in Indonesia

04.15.05. Washington, DC — The Procter & Gamble Fund has engaged the Aquaya Institute and the Johns Hopkins University Center for Communications Programs (CCP) to explore opportunities to distribute Procter & Gamble's PUR® Purifier of Water in Indonesia. The project, called PURelief Indonesia by CCP, is intended to engage Indonesian nonprofit, private sector, and government organizations in identifying communities for which PUR® is an appropriate household water treatment and to pursue distribution mechanisms that have the greatest potential to reach scale and sustained usage by end-users.

The initial deployment will bring 20 million liters of household water treatment capacity to Indonesia over the course of the project.

"We are grateful to Greg Allgood of P&G's PUR® program and to the P&G Fund for the opportunity to work with its impressive product in Indonesia. We are also very much looking forward to partnering with CCP, which has a long history of behavior change communication in developing country contexts," said Aquaya principal Jeff Albert.

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