KHMER BEAR: An arsenic removal project called “Sushi 4.0” took CEE senior Jessica Huang to rural Cambodian villages this summer. Rachel Shafer Photo
Read about the arsenic removal project called “Sushi 4.0” that took CEE senior Jessica Huang to rural Cambodia this summer
Here’s how CEE senior Jessica Huang explains it:
In the 1980s and 90s, the Cambodian government and other organizations launched well-meaning campaigns to install wells in rural villages, sometimes one well for every two homes. Clean water became plentiful and convenient, and the wells turned into prized community possessions.
But, in an unfortunate accident of geography, some sources
of Cambodia’s groundwater contain dangerous levels of naturally occurring arsenic, a fact not discovered until later. A tasteless, colorless, odorless chemical, arsenic remains in the body once ingested and slowly poisons it, causing disfiguring lesions, cancers and, in some cases, death. Two million Cambodians are at risk.