On March 8th, I interviewed Derek Albertson, an expert on water sanitation.
He told us many things, such as what he is doing, his career, and so on. I couldn’t understand the whole thing that he taught us, but it was a great opportunity to deepen my understanding of water sanitation in the United States. He said he is working on screening for health by testing the virus in water. Moreover, he has to clean about 100% before delivering water to residents’ houses. I learned that one of the ways to clean water is put bacteria into the water. He uses that way to sanitize water. Also, he uses chlorine to prevent getting sick when people go swimming in summer. His work cost a lot, and he said that the most challenging thing is to give a presentation to people in town government and university because it is very important to let people know the situation and how water becomes safe. By understanding things that he is doing, many people can recognize efforts that they can do by themselves. Besides, it will connect to protecting people under the situation of the COVID pandemic.
At the end of the interview, I asked a question about my research topic. From my research, the lack of facilities is one of the leading causes of water pollution, so I asked him about what facility lacks the most. And then, he answered that things such as medications are lacking most. It means that very few places or organizations are making the same effort as Dereks’.
After the interview, I realized that keep making an effort that I can do by myself is important to improve the water situation even in both the US and Japan. I want to try to save and protect water from now on.
Kaho Tomiya