Technical Performance 

The successful technology should address the needs of a rural family or small group of families using a single tube well. Daily per capita potable water demand is assumed to be 7.5L as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Therefore the system should be capable of processing of the order of 50 to 200 L per day. In typical villages, women and children usually fetch water. Therefore the success of a treatment process will depend largely on the ability of householders to use the system easily and conveniently.

As the reference standard of contamination, specially formulated test water will be used with a total arsenic concentration of 300 µg/L. This level of contamination is considered to be in the mid-range in severely affected areas. The system must be capable of reducing this concentration to 50 µg/L or less, presently the standard in most developing countries, including Bangladesh, without causing deterioration in other water quality characteristics, such as taste and odor, nor result in an increase in fecal coliforms or other contaminants, etc.

Contestants may assume that electricity is available but continuous service cannot be guaranteed. However, a point-of-use system that does not require electricity will also be considered. If electricity is required, the full life-cycle cost of providing it must be factored into the economic feasibility estimate.

The principal metrics of performance which will be used by the judges are (1) technical performance, that is, the ability of the system to provide sufficient quantities of water at 50 µg/L or less of total As, over an extended period of time, (2) the ability to be able to provide water at an affordable cost, considering initial capital and maintenance costs, (3) the ability to be able to collect and dispose of spent residues containing As in a safe and cost effective manner, and (4) that the system be user friendly, convenient to use, easy to maintain and is sustainable over many years.

Synthetic Test Water

Each participant will be asked to operate their process using a synthetic test water (given below) especially formulated for this competition. This formulation may not be representative of all ground water in Bangladesh or other country but it will provide a “standard” water that all competitors will need to treat for comparison of their systems.

The tests will be carried out at a location in the U.S. still to be determined. The test water will be made available to the contestant free of charge prepared at the testing facility. Test water will only be under hydrostatic pressure from the test facility reservoir. It will be the responsibility of each contestant to finance all costs associated with transporting and setting up their equipment at the testing site. The cost of utilities (test water, electric power, etc.) and basic operations will also be the responsibility of the contestants. The testing period may last for one or more weeks.

See complete testing protocol.

Economic Performance/Scalability

Most system components should be capable of being manufactured in country and serviced locally. Contestants must develop a business plan to show how this might be accomplished and must demonstrate the potential for scale up to thousands of units. Contestants must also have a plan for disseminating the technology through a non-governmental organization, the private market, or government, and for covering all costs. All technology developed by the contestants will remain their property. The NAE will hold all information conveyed to it by the contestants in confidence, except that the winning contestant must agree to disclose the winning technology at the time of announcement of the award in February 2007. It is the sole responsibility of all contestants to apply for such patent protection as they deem necessary.

Social Acceptability

Social acceptability must be demonstrated either through carefully documented field experience and/or by drawing upon existing research in social/behavioral science relevant to the challenge. Each contestant must submit a credible field monitoring plan describing how well the system is expected to work, over what period of time, and what level of maintenance is expected; the plan should also pinpoint expected operational problems and explain how they might be handled.

Judging

Entries will be judged by a panel of NAE members (Prize Committee) appointed by the NAE Council. Panel members will be prominent members of the engineering, scientific, industrial, government, educational, and environmental communities. The panel will base its selection of a winner on the criteria outlined in the requirements above with the assistance of specialists familiar with the arsenic problem.

Under the conditions of the NAE/Grainger Foundation Prize Agreement, the Grainger Prize is available only to U.S. citizens at a U.S. institution, who must be living at the time of notification of selection as Prize recipients, in the U.S. All team members must agree and stipulate in writing in advance how they wish the prize money to be distributed. Such stipulation once made shall be irrevocable and unchangeable. NAE accepts no responsibility for adjudicating disputes of any kind among team members. All expenses incurred by the contestants in pursuit of the prize are their responsibility.