Martin Wegelin

Martin Wegelin (* 1947 ) is a Swiss civil engineer . He is a former employee of the Federal Institute for Water Supply, Wastewater Treatment and Water Protection ( EAWAG ), Department of Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries, in Dübendorf , Canton of Zurich .

Martin Wegelin has been working in development aid for over 30 years , primarily with the aim of providing a hygienic drinking water supply for the 1.1 billion people who, according to the UN, only have water that is polluted and contaminated with pathogens . After long work on gravel and sand filters, he developed the extremely simple method of solar disinfection , or SODIS for short .

This uses the germicidal effect of the sun's UV light , in which the water is simply exposed to daylight in transparent bottles with a maximum of 2 liters (e.g. PET bottles). B. is placed on the roof of a hut. With a cloudy sky after two days, with full sun after 6 hours, all pathogens, such as cholera , dysentery , hepatitis and typhoid, are killed. This measure alone has reduced the number of diarrheal diseases by 50%.

The World Health Organization recommends since 2001 Sodis as a suitable method for drinking water disinfection .

Honors

In 2006 he received the Swiss Red Cross (SRK) Prize for Humanitarian Achievements for his work .

In 2012 he was awarded the Dr. JE Brandenberger honored.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ PDF
2. ↑ NZZ: SRK awards prize for humanitarian service - clean water with pet bottle and sunlight
3. ↑ Brandenberger Prize 2012 - 25 years of commitment to clean drinking water through solar water disinfection ( Memento from January 15, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )

swell

• Samiha Schafy: The water preacher . In: Der Spiegel . No. 29 , 2007, p. 116-118 ( online - 16 July 2007 ).

Web links

• SODIS website
• Report of the science program Nano about the Sodis process
• Pure water for all , The Hindu Business Line, Apr 15, 2005
• Clean water at no cost, the SODIS way , The Hindu, Sep 14, 2006