Spring 2018 PEG

MEMBER NEWS

THIS COMPELLING

countries. In 2011, he won the Alberta Science and Technology Leadership Foundation’s Societal Impact Award for his humanitarian efforts. Although he’s retired from the CAWST, his work isn’t done. Millions of people are accessing clean water thanks to his filter, but Dr. Manz wants to rocket that number into the billions. “It was, and is, my big opportunity to do something for the world in my life.”

CALGARIAN BRINGS CLEAN WATER TO THE WORLD

David Manz, P.Eng., PhD , decided early in his life that he’d be among that small percentage of people who really do change the world. It’s safe to say he’s succeeding. With a storied career that includes working as a provincial flood forecaster (and predicting the 2013 flood in Calgary) before becoming an environmental engineering professor at the University of Calgary, Dr. Manz hit his stride when he started working on the developing world’s water problems. “While water was available, almost 100 per cent of the time it was not safe to drink,” says Dr. Manz, who’s earned a spot on the Calgary Herald’s 2018 list of the 20 most compelling Calgarians. Dr. Manz channelled his concern into the development of better water filters. He improved traditional filters, making them smaller, more affordable, and easier to construct locally, and his filter has seen worldwide success. The new filter increases the safety of drinking water, food preparation, hygiene, and sanitation for at-risk communities. Initial testing in Nicaragua even led to the country’s only cholera-free area. After leaving the university (and donating the technology and training programs), Dr. Manz helped found the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST) and was instrumental in bringing better water or sanitation to 15.4 million people in 164

FILTRATION FRIENDS Course participants in South Africa pose for a photo with Dr. David Manz, P.Eng., their instructor in the use of his water filtration technology. -photo courtesy Dr. David Manz, P.Eng.

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