This year, we elected to take Etihad Airlines instead of Emirates to fly to Bangladesh, as tickets to Emirates ended up being hard to find for a family of 7 (my grandparents were coming with us to Bangladesh this year – they had finally secured a Visa and visited us in the States for almost 10 months, and were now going to return to Bangladesh with our family during our vacation). This meant that our stop on the way to Bangladesh was in Abu Dhabi, instead of Dubai. We were a bit cautious as we
heard that Etihad probably wasn’t nearly as good as Emirates had been (we’d
never had bad experiences with Emirates). Unfortunately, our fears were
confirmed, as our hiccups with Emirates started almost from the moment we set
our feet inside the Dallas Fort Worth Airport, to board our 16-hour flight to
Abu Dhabi. There apparently was quite a rigid policy associated with carryon
size aboard the Etihad flight. We all had what we thought were “standard size” carry-ons,
which worked just fine all these years, but upon approaching the Etihad
counter, we saw that almost all of our carry-ons wouldn’t fit the reference
size crate on the floor. We already The flight itself wasn’t bad. 16-hour flight upon economy class isn’t anything to write home about – but I watched a few cool movies on the flight. There’s a movie I watched called “Concussion” starring Will Smith. I had previously read reviews about the movie being rated at somewhat mediocre by critics – but I took my chance and watched it. I ended up really enjoying it – the movie is quite underrated – basically about a doctor (played by Will Smith) who found out that NFL players suffer from life-damaging concussions leaving them with mental disabilities. The NFL then fought against the findings of the doctor, since his findings would undermine the very existence of the NFL. It is quite an interesting movie, and I highly recommend this movie! ARRIVAL IN DHAKA We landed safely in the Dhaka international airport – but we noticed that things were quite different. Security seemed to be much more amped up. We later found out that there was a terrorist attack (claimed to be by ISIS) in a region in Dhaka (the capital) called Gulshan, where over 20 people were killed. It saddened me to hear this, as Bangladesh was actually very immune to these types of attacks – and attack of this scale was virtually unheard of in the country. Because of this, I noticed lots of armed security guards throughout the airport. After taking up all our luggage from the baggage claim, we noticed that one bag was missing. It turned out to be one of my bags, which contained many of my books, which I had intended to use to study for the MCAT (man…it’s crazy that I am now having to think about applying to med school already…). The books were pretty expensive, so I got worried. The workers at the baggage claim told us not to worry, and that usually lost baggage tend to turn up at the airport in the coming days after the flight. We had no choice, as it was getting late, so we left our contact details, and exited the airport to go to our flat in Dhaka. ![]() On the drive to our flat, I
noticed just how much Dhaka had changed in just the 2 years I was gone. Lots of
new overpasses were built, which seemed to have reduced traffic substantially. The quality of the roads going out of the airport were now very good, and overall, it was clear that tons of improvements to the surroundings have been done in just 2 years. Seeing such improvements reinforced my hope in this nation. By the time we arrived at our
flat, it was past midnight. We all settled down as soon as we could, and went
to sleep, as early next morning was the departure time for our bus to Kushtia,
Bangladesh, where all my relatives lived. It was also the locationThe following morning, we departed from the Dhaka flat to the bus station. We boarded our bus, chartered by the Hanif Company, and was on our way. It was quite a comfortable bus – more comfortable than any bus I’d been in even in the United States.The bus ride to Kushtia took over 6 hours, but the time flew by without incident, especially because of how comfortable the bus was. We arrived in Kushtia, and went straight to my grandparent’s home, from my mother’s side. My grandmother greeted us, and was overjoyed to see us. My grandfather, who was much more weakened than he used to be, also greeted us, when we went to his room. Luckily for me, my grandparent’s home from my father’s side was
also in Kushtia, just a mere 15 minutes’ rickshaw ride away. My uncle and aunt
lived in my
grandparent’s home, so we went over there briefly to see them as
well. My dad and stood on the side of the road, and stuck our hands out
for a ride, and soon a traditional pedal-powered rickshaw came over, and picked
us up. Or so we thought it was pedal powered. The moment the rickshaw
started moving, I noticed something different. It was going much faster than I
had realized 2 years ago, and the rickshaw was emitting a "buzzing" sound. I suddenly realized that the rickshaw was entirely electric.The rickshaw could also be pedaled, but an electric motor was hitched underneath, which had enough power to zip us through traffic. I looked around as we were driving through town, and noticed that virtually all the "pedal" rickshaws all had these small electric motors by the rear wheels.I attached a picture of our driver, and his auto rickshaw. Quit amazing :) These pedal auto rickshaws were traditionally considered to be the slowest form of transport in Bangladesh, as there already were dedicated 3 wheeled electric auto rickshaws all over Bangladesh - but now, even these pedal auto rickshaws were electric. And since these pedal-powered auto rickshaws were so light, they actually were faster than the standard, large electric auto rickshaw I realized that Bangladesh had come a long way in this regard - and the city was not experiencing the kind of smog you'd expect in a densely populated area, since everything was electric! Below are two pictures - on the left is one of the "standard" electric auto rickshaw which is now quite popular in Bangladesh, and is capable of seating up to 9 people, as there are 3 benches within the vehicle. The green vehicle on the right is an auto rickshaw powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) - these are since being phased out in Bangladesh with the electric versions. The CNG rickshaws are still quite popular in parts of East Asia, India, and Pakistan. We finally arrived at my grandparent's home (from my father's side). The headquarters of iKormi was right beside their home for convenient access, so as I entered the home, I saw the dozens of filters under construction off to the side. It was amazing – I didn’t think the construction would have advanced this far. I saw the various parts of the filter in the corners of the construction place, such as many neatly labeled bags of sand, which were used as the filtration media. I also saw the many plastic diffusers waiting to be installed in the filters. Inside my grandparent’s home, there was a finished arsenic water filter which was being used by the household (at the time, my uncle, aunt, and two cousins were living there). The water filter was one of the first filters we ever built – the filter was over 2 years old. Yet the filter worked amazingly. The water well that the household used had large amounts of iron – to the point in which the red iron residues were visible even in a single cup of water, and the smell of watery iron was quite noticeable. After running the water through the filter, all traces of iron were completely eliminated, and the smell and taste of the water was much improved. My grandfather’s water well didn’t really have arsenic however, so that filter didn’t need to work to remove arsenic – but even in removing other impurities like iron, the water filter worked beautifully. It was amazing to see that the performance of the filter was so consistent over these two years, without having to replace cartridges like other types of filters would ordinarily have to do. ![]() As it turned out, the filter was not only helping the many households in rural areas where we deployed to over the last 2 years (such as in the village Rajapur), but also was a great help to my grandparent’s household as well. Previously, the iron-rich water would have been boiled in an attempt to get rid of some of the iron-esque taste from the water. The water would then have to take some time to cool, before being drinkable. This wasn’t necessary anymore, as the filter took care of removing all the iron from the water as well as substantially improving taste. Seeing this filter, as well as the one in the Dhaka flat greatly encouraged me and reaffirmed me of the strength of these filters. 2 years ago when I came to Bangladesh to start manufacturing these filters, my biggest fear was how these filters would hold up. If these filters didn’t properly hold up, then my purpose for making these filters would start to be weak – what is the point of them? I wanted to improve upon the three greatest weaknesses of filters already in the market – the high cost, and the fragileness of the filters, as well as the need to keep replacing cartridges. I couldn’t wait to go to Rajapur to see how the other filters which had been distributed over the last two years had been holding up. From what I heard from iKormi volunteers who have followed up on those who received filters, very few units have had problems. I was hoping to see those for myself.
Trip to Chuadanga, Bangladesh
villagers in the area. They were all incredibly hospitable, and all offered to show us the water wells from which they drank from. Within the next 30 minutes, we took samples from the water wells of several villagers around the area, and saw that the vast majority of the water was heavily contaminated with tons of iron, and many were arsenic contaminated. The water samples were also visibly cloudy, meaning that the water had lots of sediments, and possibly other contaminant materials in there. We also stopped by a school, which was at that moment, currently in session. We saw in the middle of the courtyard of the school where all the kids were playing, was an old water well. The water well was elevated, which was quite an unusual design compared to all the normal water wells we have seen so far. It turned out that a NGO had built that well. The well was elevated to avoid arsenic contamination on the output, as often times, the concentration of arsenic could be reduced when brought out from underground and exposed to oxygen. However, at the moment, the water well was completely broken, and children were playing on it. I decided to take a picture of the well, via selfie. The children were all excited by our presence, and all were intent on getting in my picture. Afterwards, we talked to the school’s headmaster, who confirmed our suspicions that indeed, there was arsenic contaminated water in the area, as well as at the school. We decided that Chuadanga needed a representative to collect the names and addresses of the first batch of people who most urgently need water filters, similar to how we found a woman named Sumayyah in Rajapur, who had helped us greatly in bringing us a list of people who were in the most need for arsenic water filters. Because of Sumayyah’s cooperation, we were able to help Rajapur greatly increase their access to safe drinking water, especially amongst those who are extremely poor. We ended up finding a woman in Chuadanga who was willing to volunteer- her name was Fatima. We gave her the task of giving us a list of people in her village who were in the most need to receive water filters. We also provided her with the financial resources for the support and time she would give for this cause. With the preliminary surveying of that region’s water supplies, we were done. We packed our stuff back into the microbus, and headed back to Kushtia. Things were going all good, until the microbus started to heavily jerk. The vehicle has already been displaying problems since the beginning of the trip to Chuadanga, but the problems were magnified on the way back to Kushtia. I suspected the clutch was giving out. Suddenly, the vehicle came to a stop, and didn’t move any further. It was directly in the middle of a busy highway road. To make things worse, there was only 10 minutes until sunset, so that made the situation very dangerous. Within minutes, a long line of cars piled behind us (it was a one laned road). We were very confused and scared on what to do. Suddenly, out of amazing good luck, a passenger bus came up from behind. The assistant on the bus walked out, and offered all of us to come on board. I was stunned at our luck – 12 people in the middle of the night managed to hitchhike onto a passing bus just like that. I later found out that is sort of behavior was customary in Bangladesh – stranded travelers in the middle of the roads were often picked up by the good will of people on passing passenger buses. It warmed my heart to see such behavior. After we got on the bus, we found out to our good fortune that the bus was headed to Kushtia by default, so we were finally able to relax. That was definitely a story that would never be forgotten. The picture below is of a small public bus in Bangladesh, similar to the one that picked us up. These buses aren't the fanciest thing in the world, but they get the job done - and the operators are always kind enough to pick up travelers in need!
Trip to Dhaka
Shadowing Neurosurgeon Dr. Fazle Elahi, at the National Neurological Institute
Never have I ever seen anything like it. I mean,
I always knew what the brain looked like in textbooks, and the fact that all
people had brains (well…actually, that is debatable), but seeing one in front
of me was surreal. The brain was covered in several layers of thin membranes,
which the doctors were carefully peeling away. Afterwards, the sides of the
brain were carefully “pushed” aside so the doctors could take their scalpels
and reach into the tumor, which was further inside the brain. Since the space
to work within the skull was so small (exacerbated by the fact that the patient
was only 9 years old), a sort of digital microscope was used by the doctor to
be able to see what he was doing. Luckily for me, the digital microscope also
projected an image onto a nearby television in the operating room, so I could
see what exactly the doctor was doing. It was quite impressive that the doctor
was able to maneuver such a small area and remove a tumor from something as
complex as the brain. A small mistake in the hand maneuvering would probably
end up in a bad situation for the patient – yet the doctor remained quite calm
and at ease throughout the procedure. The nearby nurses and assistants all
worked together with the doctors in an orderly manner. After 3 hours, the
surgery was complete, and the patient’s skull was repaired, and the skin around
it was sutured together. The finishing touches were so good that it was
difficult to the naked eye to see that such a big surgery was done on this
patient. The machines and all the tools were put aside, and the nurses and
assistants cleaned up the operating table. The doctor did some finishing
checks, ensuring the patient was ok, and then told me his job was done. BELOW: The completion of the tumor removal surgery on the 9-year old girl BELOW: Me with Dr. Fazle Elahi who graciously allowed me the opportunity to shadow him and see the surgeries A visit into the Hazaribagh Tanneries in Dhaka ABOVE: Me with the manager of the Ayub Brother's tannery which I had a chance to go inside of. facilities, raw leather is transformed into processed leather, which is then exported to developed countries in Europe and the United States to be made into shoes and leather bags. Over 185,000 people live in this area, which is just over 1 square mile in size. Processing leather is very dirty business, and tons of waste is generated- most of which is quite hazardous to health. These tanneries process millions of dollars worth of leather, and then dump the waste chemicals into the drain which flows directly down to the Buriganga river, which leads to the illness of many people who live in the surroundings. In addition, there are tons of scrap leather which is thrown away after the leather is processed. The scrap leather is often thrown away in the open land or lakes nearby. I read about all this prior to coming to Bangladesh – and this time, I wanted to see it for myself. So, towards the end of my one week stay in Dhaka, we drove down to the corner of Dhaka where Hazaribagh, and asked to be able to get inside one of the tannery facilties. To our surprise, the tannery directors allowed us to see how they manufacture the leather. I was overall quite surprised with how ![]() orderly and quick the tannery operated, but when it came to asking how they disposed of their waste materials, the answer was just as grim as I was expecting – simply dump the chemicals down the drain leading to the river, and dump the scrap leather in the open lands nearby. I wanted to see the dumping grounds myself – so we drove just about a half mile away from the tanneries, and it was absolutely stunning to see what happened next. I walked out of the car, and saw what appeared to be a massive wasteland filled with chemicals and waste leather. As I walked closer, I saw that this wasteland was actually a huge lake, that was covered with over 5 inches of leather and chemicals from the tanneries. There was water UNDERNEATH all that! It almost seemed I stepped into a part of the world that had experienced the apocalypse. It seemed stunning to me that this region was only a mere 5-6 miles away from the heart of the city. It turns out that many people are pushing for the tanneries to be relocated away from the densely populated city to a more remote area so that the impact on the people wouldn’t be so great. As I got back in the car to leave, I was feeling a bit helpless – what could I do? There was so many pieces of scrap leather being thrown away – was there anything that could be done with that leather? It turns out that the scrap leather is just as good quality as the leather being exported – but they simply were difference sizes, not fit for export. I was trying to think maybe the leather could be put to use in some type of product which could be sold, serving both a business purpose, and helping to solve a big environmental problem affecting the health of thousands of people.
Dropping off water filter samples to test for bacteria at the ICCDRB ( International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh) in Dhaka In Dhaka, there was not an arsenic problem, but more of a bacterial contamination problem in the water. The filters that we were building at iKormi, while mainly designed to fight the problem of arsenic water contamination in rural village, were also designed to remove bacteria from water as well. On our final day in Dhaka, we met with Mr. Atiq, who was a friend of my dad’s. Mr. Atiq was also one of the people who have been critical in helping iKormi keep expanding. He was one of the first people in Dhaka to take a water filter from iKormi so that he could keep track of how the filter performed there as well. His filter was in operation for over 8 months, and the filter was working great, at least when visually inspecting the water. However, for safety, Mr. Atiq was boiling the water that came out of the filter to kill bacteria in the water if there was any. Boiling water turns out to be a very common household task in Bangladesh, especially in Dhaka, where bacterial contamination of supply water is prevalent. In many households in Dhaka, people own water filters (the kind with cartridges that need to be replaced) which they pour their water through, and ALSO boil the water afterwards, because of the subpar performance of the filters. After the 8 months of usage, we wanted to see whether or not the filter that Mr. Atiq was using from iKormi was properly removing bacteria from the water. So we decided to take 4 different types of water samples, and take them down to the ICCDRB (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh), where they have a water bacterial testing facility. The 4 different samples were water samples taken from 1) Supply Water, 2) Filtered Water, 3) Boiled Water, 5) Bottled Water. We all went to the ICCDRB, and gave our samples, and were given directions to come back after 5 days when the tests were complete. As my family and I were going to leave Dhaka the next day, we gave Mr. Atiq the duty to retrieve the sample results, and give them to us when we come back to Dhaka for a final time 2 weeks later when we go to the airport (coincidentially, Mr. Atiq worked as an airplane engineer at the airport, so it all works out).Ratifying the iKormi Constitution
Return to Kushtia - Trip to Rajapur Village ![]()
When we arrived inside Rajapur, the iKormi volunteers Shojib and Kanak who traveled with us, started to distribute the 13 water filters which we had brought in the truck. There was already a predetermined list of people receiving the filters, which was organized and given to us by Zarina, who was a doctor at the local village clinic, and the filter distribution commenced. New filters were given out, and the stickers with the owner’s names and serial numbers were fitted as well. I was proud of seeing how orderly the filters were being distributed, and how professional the process was. I also noticed that the village people all knew what iKormi was, and we were all greeted with a warm welcome. BELOW: iKormi field operations coordinator Shojib registering the new owner to receive a water filter After distributing the water filters, we then began to visit some of the households which had first received our water filters. We went to the homes, and firstly tested the arsenic concentration of the water coming in from the original water pump. We then tested the arsenic concentration of the water leaving the filters. We went to 5 different households, and tested in this manner, and to our excitement, all the filters were performing just as well as they originally did, or even better than before, despite running for over 2 years. For example, in one home, the arsenic concentration of the water was over 500 ppb (parts per billion), and the arsenic concentration of the water after going through the filter was less than 5 ppb – virtually all the arsenic was removed! For reference, the acceptable level of arsenic in Bangladesh as designated by the government is any level below 50 ppb. 500 ppb, which is what the people were drinking before, is extremely high, and quite dangerous for the people to continually drink. Such positive results we saw in the other households – reductions from 500 ppb to 0-5 ppb were repeatedly seen. And in addition to removing arsenic, all the filters seemed to remove almost all iron from drinking water, and the resulting water looked crystal clear, and tasted great. So looking through all these results of the performance of the filters after 2 years in the field, I had even stronger faith and confidence that these filters can remain functional – as in remove contaminants from the water- without replacement parts, unlike other cartridge based filters which require a cartridge replacement every 2-3 months, and sometimes earlier depending on how dirty the input water is. BELOW: Me and iKormi volunteer Shojib performing arsenic water tests on the water pump line of a household, and the water that came out of the filter we gave that household two years prior. The water pump can be seen in the right side of the picture. This water pump was later found by us to have over 500 ppb of arsenic, and our water filter still removed nearly 100% of arsenic, even after over 2 years of operation As we were looking at filters, I caught glimpses of a few of our filters which were deployed in public spaces in Rajapur. One of the earliest filters deployed two years ago was in a community mosque, where hundreds of people pray every week. The filter, despite being visibly aged on the outside due to dust and heat, still produced crystal clear water. Even those who didn’t go to the mosque would go to the filter to retrieve clean drinking water for their personal use. I felt really happy when seeing that, and wondered just how many people had benefited from using that filter. Afterwards, we passed by the community clinic. This clinic was sponsored by the Bangladesh government, so it gives out free medication and treatment for the villagers. Inside the building was also a water filter which iKormi had distributed. Like the filter inside the mosque, the filter was still going strong and producing clean water. Just for good measure, we measured the arsenic concentration of the water before and after, and saw that the arsenic concentrations were reducing from a whopping 500 ppb to nearly 0 ppb. BELOW: Picture of the 2 year old filter outside of the mosque, still working great!
Overall, I was happy with the progress in Rajapur. I’ve always heard from the iKormi volunteers that the arsenic water filters were working well in Rajapur, but seeing it for myself in person really gave me hope and confidence in this product. These filters really are durable, and really do help these people a lot. Testing for arsenic gave an additional measure of confidence both to us and the villagers that filters like these retain their ability to remove nearly all arsenic from water even after 2 years of continuous use without replacing any parts. BELOW: Me and the others (out of the frame) walking ahead of the electric auto rickshaw inside Rajapur Return back to Dhaka for the airport - Time to leave home, to go home. BELOW: The bacterial test results for the default supply water line at Mr. Atiq's home in Dhaka. Notice the E.Coli reading of "4" (Standard is 0), and the Coliforms reading of "10". BELOW: The bacterial test results for the water after it went through the water filter. All traces of E.Coli are gone, and general Faecal Coliforms are absent as well.I said goodbye to Mr. Atiq, and as my family and I boarded the plane, I thought of all the great memories I had in Bangladesh. We had so much promising data concerning the water filters that we didn’t have before. Armed with this data, I imagined we could move so much more forward – from being able to secure more finances to expand operations, to being able to actually launch a real for-profit filter into the middle-upper-class market in Dhaka, so as to become more financially stable and independent. There was so much to be done, and I was excited to think of what the future held. The plane took off, and that was the end of our trip to Bangladesh for 2016. I was leaving home, for home.
|
Updates >