Dr. Arun Deb

Dr. Arun Deb has more than 60 years’ experience in teaching, research and consultancy in water and wastewater management. During the last 30 years, while working for Weston Solutions, Inc., Dr.  Deb started his volunteering activities with a goal to help poor people of developing countries in providing them safe drinking water and good sanitation. Many of those projects tie into volunteer activities for Water For People (WFP). In the early 1990s, Deb initiated WFP projects to bring safe drinking water to about 10 schools with nearly 1,000 students each. Deb, who has served two terms on the Water For People board, is the man behind the project in India to remove arsenic from drinking water. Deb spends several months each year in Kolkata, India. During the last twenty years, he initiated and completed sustainable Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects in about 50 schools in West Bengal.

In 1995, when he learned of the huge numbers of villagers suffering from arsenic poisoning caused by contaminated groundwater, Deb helped raise $10,000 with the help of PA Section of WFP for a research grant to support the Bengal Engineering and Science University in designing an arsenic-removal process. Now that the project is under way for the last 23 years, Deb’s reward consists of the responses from villagers during his visits to India that they are so proud of their arsenic-removal unit. This project received many national and International awards. 

Arun Deb demonstrated his passion for delivering safe drinking water and improving the quality of life. At present, as a Board Member of GWA, Dr. Deb is involved in a safe drinking water supply project for many schools in West Bengal and involved in improving education and health of students. 

He received many awards from eminent institutions like American Academy of Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Water Works Association, Water For People and Global Water Alliance.

Before retirement from Weston Solutions, Inc. in 2003, Dr. Deb was in the Faculty at the University of Notre Dame, University College London and Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology.