The countrymen should be aware of arsenic contamination as the level of arsenic in both groundwater and surface water is rising due to various reasons, he said while delivering a lecture on 'Arsenic in Groundwater: Aquatic Chemistry and Development of a Novel Filtration Technology' at the programme.

Ensuring better health is impossible without sustained supply of safe drinking water, he added.

In most developing countries, most health hazards stem from drinking contaminated water, he said.

Dr Hussam, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at George Mason University, USA, and his brother Dr Munir, general secretary of Manab Shakti Unnayan Kendra, won the Grainger Challenge Prize for inventing Sono Filter, a small-scale, inexpensive technology to remove arsenic from contaminated water.

The reception ceremony was held at Mukarram Hussain Khundkar Biggan Bhaban on the DU campus.

Prof Nurun Nabi of chemistry department said the invention of Sono Filter by Abul Hussam and his brother is a great achievement and countrymen are highly proud of it.

"Their achievement is the result of their hard and sincere research work. The invention of Sono Filter will help save the lives of crores of people in South Asia," said Prof Dr Abu Zafar Mahmud.

The Sono Filter -- an easy-to-make, maintenance-free, two-tiered system that uses sand, charcoal, bits of brick and shards of a widely available kind of cast iron -- removes virtually every trace of arsenic from water within two or three minutes.