Creating clean water

James Brown (MEng 2009): studied Product Design Engineering, which is a joint programme between the University of Glasgow and Glasgow School of Art

Current position: Public health engineer, Oxfam

Dragons’ Den first showcased James Brown’s creativity and engineering skills. Today, Oxfam employs these talents in the field to tackle urgent humanitarian problems.

James is one of the brains behind the Midomo mobile water purifier, an ingenious invention that sparked huge interest in the international development community as well as the unanimous support of the investors on BBC TV show Dragons’ Den in 2007.

Midomo literally put a new spin on the problem of transporting and treating water for drinking. The wheeled unit made it not only easier for families to transport water collected from rivers, streams or open wells, but as it was being pushed it filtered the dirty the water. A 2.2km journey provided 50 litres of safe drinking water, enough for a family’s daily needs.

Although the dragons offered to invest £50,000 in the idea, James and fellow Glasgow alumnus Amanda Jones (MA 2006) decided instead to take up the offer of a grant from Saïd Business School to develop their low-cost solution. Rural communities across sub-Saharan Africa still benefit from a newer incarnation the original device.

Despite now having moved on from developing Midomo, the experience of working with NGOs, donors and the private sector gave James a foot in the door to a career in development, and volunteering provided valuable experience of humanitarian work. His problem solving skills are now deployed globally as part of Oxfam’s Water and Sanitation (WatSan) team. James is currently working in Sierra Leone in response to the Ebola crisis, helping to build and run isolation and care centres and supporting good hygiene practices in households.

‘As a public health engineer, my job is about supporting people who have been affected by conflict, disease or natural disasters to live in a safe, hygienic and dignified way,’ he says.

His degree gave him a head start in his career, James reflects: ‘The human-centred design approach that we were taught was a very good introduction to the work I do now, which is really all about understanding the specific needs of vulnerable people living in very different and difficult contexts.’

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