Technological Solutions in Sanitation

 Author – WIN Foundation

WIN Foundation’s vision is to support innovations for sustainable social impact in

(i) water and sanitation and

(ii) mother and child health.

In this, sanitation is a critical link connecting  water supply, waste management and health.

Lack of proper public sanitation infrastructure leads to:

1. Contamination and pollution in Water sources like lakes, wells, rivers, groundwater aquifers
2. Poor drainage, in turn leading to stagnant water on ground, blocked / overflowing drainage, leading to water borne diseases, particularly in monsoon.
3. Unhealthy work conditions for sanitation workers, particularly for those involved in cleaning septic tanks, sewage lines etc.

In addition to above, poor home sanitation like lack of toilets or unclean or broken  toilets in poor or lower middle class communities lead to lack of personal hygiene and diseases. This affects women and children even more.

WIN Foundation projects improve sanitation directly or indirectly. We have supported innovations like disabled friendly toilet attachments, water saving toilet technologies and robotic septic tank cleaning systems.

i) Disabled friendly toilet attachment improves access to toilets for the vast population with physical disabilities, thus increasing their usage. WIN Foundation supported Oston Technology in initial stage trials in field. Now these products are being adopted in greater numbers.

 

 

 

 

ii) Water saving in flush toilets using hyperboloid technology developed by students from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, was the 1st prize award winner in the national Vishwakarma Innovation competition, jointly organized by Maker Bhavan Foundation and WIN Foundation. Toilet flushing requires a lot of water and this innovation can cut it down by about 70%.

 

iii) Septic Tank cleaning robotic system tackles the vicious problem of  unhealthy, dangerous and undignified practice of manual cleaning of septic tanks. It also enables sanitation workers an avenue for sustainable microentrepreneurship. Our continuing support to Solinas, the startup manufacturing septic tank cleaning robotic system, originally developed at IIT Madras, aims at greater adoption of this technology by sanitation workers.

 

Our water conservation projects involving ground water recharge and roof rainwater harvesting, while primarily aimed at conserving water, also provides an indirect but significant benefit of reducing water stagnation on ground, thereby reducing the clogging and overflow of storm water drains. WIN Foundation supports water conservation through participatory approach, which involves training and empowering village youth to implement water security projects in their villages. This ensures greater sustainability and knowledge based livelihoods.

WIN Foundation continues to look to support adoption of more innovations at grass root levels, through a multi-stakeholder approach involving institutions, startups, NGOs and other ecosystems players

Students as the New-Gen leaders bringing learning, ideas, energy to Social Impact projects

Author – WIN Foundation

 Introduction:

India is blessed with a talented young population. Our students, from diverse backgrounds and with enormous information exposure today, have strong capabilities to understand complex issues and take informed decisions. So WIN Foundation is confident that is they are introduced to the grass root communities and the social impact world, through our projects, they can develop excellent understanding and empathy for the challenges facing our less privileged communities and contribute towards ideas, strategies and plans in our culturally diverse, democratic society.

 

Students exposure to communities and social impact projects will:

• Help them see parts of diverse communities, lifestyle, constraints – which they may not have seen in their own life earlier.
• Helps them see and comprehend firsthand the complexity and ambiguity inherent in social systems
• Helps them to see challenges for such communities and also think of opportunities with new generation ideas and solutions, building upon their learning from academic world
• Build confidence of interacting at different levels in diverse communities across rural, tribal and urban lower middle class areas.
• Build strong personal and interpersonal development, particularly the ability to work well with others, and hone their leadership and communication skills.

 

NGOs and Communities in turn will:

 

• Get new ideas including new technologies, management processes, IT applications etc.
• Get opportunity to increase the human resources focused on specific projects for tasks like surveys, measurements, data analysis, etc.
• NGOs and communities usually do not have access to and cannot afford consultants from the market for above.

 

In India, knowledge and technology translation to the filed, and particularly in social impact domains, is lacking due to:

 

• Lack of connect between academia and field practitioners
• Lack of connect between those with strong management and technology competencies and those who implement things on the field either as skilled or as unskilled workers.

 

WIN Foundation is actively promoting student involvement in its projects by bringing students at various levels, from bachelors to Phd/Post-Doc, This helps in following ways:

• It helps to transfer expert knowledge and technology to the field implementers.
• Students take the problems and challenges observed back to their institutions, where with faculty guidance, resources like labs and library, work to develop more mature solutions/approaches. Thus they help build bridges between institutions and communities.
• Students, due to their sheer numbers, can also help in tasks which require basic skills and knowledge in large numbers – e.g. surveying, trying out multiple solutions, etc. This would be either infeasible or too expensive by normal means

 

List of student projects and internships:

 

Summary:-

This new generation, through skills and knowledge acquired through such on ground experiences, will emerge as innovative problem solvers for myriad challenges facing India and the world. Whether they go on to become employees, social entrepreneurs, policy-makers, or community leaders, they will have the tools and mindset needed to make a meaningful impact on society, and also have fruitful careers.

 

 

Khambhati Kuva for surface runoff: Cheapest and most effective traditional technique

 Author – Mr. Lokendra Balasaria, an architect, is actively promoting water conservation and natural farming, in urban and rural areas in Gujarat (urbantreewalks@gmail.com)

• A technically fine tuned soak pit modified and designed for percolation of higher quantity of rainwater run off, long operational life and better safety
• This is best suited for largely paved urban areas where surface runoff has low turbidity. In tight spaces, these can also be easily made under the driveways.
• This can be effective in regions with absorbent sand layers at shallow depths and deeper water table. Fractures in operable layers can allow for larger absorption of water below ground.
• Khabhmati Kuva of larger diameter have been observed to have higher absorption rate and also longer active life. A 25 feet diameter at Bimanagar, Ahmedabad has been in operation now for almost 2 decades with little maintenance. This society has also reported lower TDS in groundwater over the years and also higher water table compared to nearby areas.

For Ahmedabad’s geology, probably one of the most efficient, minimal maintenance and economical solution to rainwater harvesting

In most places, a 10 feet diameter and 30 feet deep well can absorb between 35 to 45 thousand litres of rainwater every hour.

Wastewater treatment and management in India

 

Author- Mrs (Dr.) Seema Sukhani  Director, Tellus Habitat Pvt Ltd.

Wastewater management is a critical issue in India, where rapid urbanization, population growth, and industrialization have resulted in the generation of large quantities of wastewater. In this context, discharge of untreated wastewater into water bodies or groundwater contamination poses a significant threat to public health. Wastewater contains harmful pathogens, which can lead to waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and dysentery. Current estimates show about 70 percent of India’s water supply is already contaminated and nearly 1 million people die each year from water, sanitation and hygiene-related diseases which could also be reduced with access to safe water and sanitation. Some of the key challenges and needs for wastewater management in India include:

1. Lack of infrastructure: to treat and dispose wastewater. Many cities and towns lack proper sewerage systems, and wastewater is often discharged directly into water bodies.
2. Industrial pollution: Industrialization has led to the discharge of toxic chemicals and heavy metals into water bodies, posing a significant threat to human health and the environment.
3. Agricultural runoff: Agricultural practices such as the use of pesticides and fertilizers result in significant runoff into water bodies, leading to water pollution and soil degradation.

 

But the most significant challenge is the mental stigma around wastewater. The lack of ownership and accountability from us as a community for handling our own waste is the fundamental issue. Wastewater management is a global issue, but can only be treated locally. Instead of transferring responsibility to the government and larger conglomerates, treatment at the point of discharge should be adopted and encouraged.

There are other factors associated with managing our wastewater properly apart from public safety and equitable water distribution. Our planet is drying out. Every day, more and more people are experiencing water stress. Humanity is facing a water crisis like never before and in a few years’ time, there simply won’t be enough water available for all of us. According to the estimates, around 40% of the world’s population will be living in seriously water-stressed areas by 2035. In the Indian context, our country is home to 18 percent of the world’s population, but only 4 percent of its water resources, making it one of the most water-stressed countries in the world. Nearly 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress, with about 2 million people dying each year as a result of inadequate access to safe water. If we continue doing what we are doing today, there will simply not be enough water to quench the thirst of the world population.

 

RECYCLE WATER TODAY, HAVE DRINKABLE WATER TOMORROW

 

We must act quickly, swiftly and locally. Every drop of used water needs to be recycled.

Water is considered to be a cheap resource around the globe and wastewater is often thought disposable. One key differentiator is associated “waste” with water which automatically bring a different response in the society. Instead, we can refer it as “used” water which can be “re-used”. This change in terminology and mind-set is necessary to ensure long term sustenance and water security.

Efficient and compatible technology and water practises should be implemented across habitable spaces to ensure that “used” water is treated before it is discharged into water bodies or re-used for domestic or commercial applications. There are several technologies available for wastewater treatment, each with its unique benefits and drawbacks. The most common wastewater treatment technologies are biological in nature, few of the most popular ones are Activated Sludge Process, Moving Bed Biofilm Reactors, Sequencing Batch Reactors, Oxidation Ponds etc.

There are two major outputs from a wastewater treatment system – the treated water and sludge. Both of these can be used in a variety of ways in both rural and urban areas. Treated water can be used for non-potable applications like flushing, gardening, irrigation, industrial processes and recharging ground water. In rural areas treated water can be completely used in agriculture and recharging water bodies. This can help to conserve freshwater resources and reduce the demand for water. Treated water can also be used for aquaculture or fish farming. The nutrients in the treated water can provide a food source for fish, while the fish can help to remove nutrients from the water.

The sludge produced during the wastewater treatment process can also be used in a variety of ways. In rural areas, sludge can be used as fertilizer for agriculture, while in urban areas, it can be used as a soil amendment for landscaping or as a source of energy. Some wastewater treatment plants even use sludge as a source of biogas, which can be used to generate electricity or heat.

The selection of appropriate “used” water treatment technology depends on several factors such as the nature and concentration of contaminants, the volume of wastewater to be treated, the desired quality of the treated water and the re-use application of treated water. Most of these technologies requires extensive energy, trained manpower and are not economical. They are also not suitable at lower scales (<75 KLD), which essentially means one family (0.5KLD) to group of 150 families (75KLD) do not have an economical, feasible “used” water treatment technology. A large contributor of “used” water has been ignored by the technology giants of this space.

 

IT TAKES A LOT OF BLUE TO STAY GREEN

Tellus Habitat was founded with the vision to bridge the gap of the under-served market and be a one stop water solution for the world’s increasing water needs and depleting resources. We offer technologically advanced, compact, portable affordable and automated systems of scales ranging from a nuclear family to a community of 1000 families for urban areas. We also offer passive nature based systems (NBS) for rural areas that treat water with the help of algae and consume negligible electricity. By recycling at the source, we can solve the worldwide water crisis.

 

Waste-water management, and overview of challenges and opportunities

 

Author – WIN Foundation

 

Waste-water management, and overview of challenges and opportunities:

 

Every human should have the idea of taking care of the environment, of nature, of water. So using too much or wasting water should have some kind of feeling or sense of concern. Some sort of responsibility and with that, a sense of discipline.” -Dalai Lama

Wastewater Management is an integral part of managing the water cycle effectively.

 Traditionally, the water cycle took care of the supply of fresh water to the living world on land, including its purification by natural means. However, increase in population and industries have led to huge increase in water demand and also created massive water pollution. Nature’s water cycle is grossly insufficient to meet these needs. This puts pressure on our water sources, while at the same time degrades them. Waste water management is a critical need, alongwith water conservation, to meet these challenges.

 

Grossly inadequate wastewater management has led to stagnant water in our localities, leading to their contamination. In turn, such water has degraded a large number of our water bodies.

 A related problem is stormwater management, which manages the vast amount of water brought by rainfall during the monsoon months across the country. It is becoming increasingly clear that the current system of trying to collect and carry the stormwater over large distances is dysfunctional. Isn’t it ironical that, in most places, due to stagnation on ground for many hours or days, as well frequent mixing with sewage water, we manage to convert the pure rainwater given by nature into contaminated and polluted water and then we add it to our water bodies? We are all aware of the diseases this brings on every monsoon. The solution is actually available in the Rainwater Harvesting technology. RWH systems have been traditionally used over centuries, and modern adaptations can easily enable us to use such systems to collect a major part of rainwater from roof as well as surface and recharge groundwater. In addition to the well known increase in water availability, RWH is a better way of managing “stormwater”, before it becomes dirty. RWH systems can vastly reduce the water overflow on ground, and thus reduce the substantial stormwater drain capital and operational expenses of our local government bodies.

 

Some major negative effects of inadequate wastewater and stormwater management are:

 

1. Stagnant water in our localities, which further flows into our water bodies, has led to waterborne epidemics due to the resultant water contamination and pollution, often impacting the poor more due to their physical proximity to such stagnant water. For children it can mean poor mental and physical growth
2. Degraded water bodies reduce the water available for humans and other living systems. In most such water bodies, aquatic life is severely impacted.
3. Women, particularly in rural areas, may need to travel farther to fetch potable water, or pay a high price for purified water.
4. Government has to deploy much higher resources to treat water and transport the same to households over longer distances.

 

The government’s excellent scheme to bring water on tap for all households in progressive manner will remove some of the last mile problems. However, in turn, it will make the need for wastewater management at local levels, including in rural areas, even more acute.

Several technologies have been developed by institutions and industry, including in India. WIN Foundation, for example has supported the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, to develop a multi-stage modular plant for wastewater treatment to bring it to near potable level at very reasonable cost. This plant is already functioning on IIT Kharagpur campus. Methods of natural root zone treatment of wastewater have also been implemented showing potential of natural methods to treat wastewater.

 

In an article in this issue, Dr. Seema Sukhani, founder of Tellus Habitat, a startup with packaged modular products, talks about wastewater treatment at decentralised levels of varying sizes, features and cost.

 

Similarly, there are several techniques for RWH. in the following picture-poster, Mr. Lokendra Balasaria, describes one such technique, called “Khambhati Kuva” in Gujarat, which can carry down vast amounts of rainwater to the aquifers, vastly reducing the on surface stagnation, and stormwater volume to be carried horizontally.

 

An important challenge in wastewater management systems is competency to install, operate and maintain such systems. This requires large-scale skilling in each of these areas, in urban and rural areas, to manage the vast variety of systems which may be deployed. This can, in turn, provide better quality livelihood opportunities to lakhs of our youth, in urban as well as rural areas.

 

Conclusion:

 

An integrated approach to wastewater and stormwater management will provide multiple benefits of better water availability and quality, reduced contamination, cleaner water bodies, reduction in water borne diseases, with lower capex and opex.

 

It can also vastly increase good quality water available for humans and all living systems. It further reduces the energy and cost of treating polluted or contaminated water.

 

As the Slovakian proverb says: “Pure Water is the World’s First and Foremost Medicine.”

WIN Nutrition Approach – Community-centred and owned

 

Author – WIN Foundation

 

Background

 

Rural, tribal and urban slum areas face following challenges:

 

(i) lack of maintenance of Commons and civic services and

(ii) Poor quality of life and work.

 

The government, central and states, private charities and multilateral organizations including UN bodies, have, over decades, launched many schemes for social impact, many of them multiple times, repeating process and programs over years.

 

In spite of this the results are not satisfactory. The major reason for this is that the top down approach of most of the programs do not inculcate change in competencies, behaviour and habits. Due to this, the changes sought are not  sustained.

 

Community led approaches

 

Four key elements that affect social change are the environment, technology, social institutions, and communities. These elements are interlinked with each other.

Environment

• With our overstretched resource usage, living in harmony with nature using appropriate technology are important for sustainable development, economic growth and

 

Technology

• Combining traditional local knowledge with scientific knowledge and innovations at community level will enable development of new sustainable approaches, optimised to local needs. Indigenous knowledge is also important for the conservation of biodiversity.
• Indigenous knowledge is also a potential source for the conservation of biodiversity.
• People involvement in this process is essential for acceleration of change through scaling and replication.

 

Community ownership encourages and enables:

• Responsibility and accountability at local levels, aided by skilling and leadership development, bringing sharp focus on local customer and community needs.
• Adoption of innovative technology and delivery models, refined continuously over time through local trials, generating local evidence.
  
• Co-operation, coordination and collaboration between the stakeholders at the community level to bring greater awareness and better habits.

 

Social Institutions and other organisations enable community ownership process through:

• Creating Space for Community Ownership and leadership within communities.
• Bring institutional resources to the table, to bring different competencies to the community participants with a strong focus on experiential learning, skilling and leadership development. For this institutions have to reorient their own staff on principles of community ownership, local entrepreneurship, and customer centricity, as a key driver for sustainable change.
• Continuously monitor and refine process to close the gap between intention and impact.
• Encourage community voice; speak up to make change..
• Creating equitable and just solutions is not just people work, it’s heart work.
• Documentation of processes and results to help replication and scaling

 

 

WIN  Foundation Nutrition projects

 

WIN Foundation has taken Community centred approach with aim for Community ownership, to the nutrition problem.

 

Nutrition status in most parts of the country remains challenging. In spite of several programs for improving nutrition, lack of habit formation in nutrition food habits which, has led to poor nutrition outcomes. To add to this, we also face the adverse effect of

(i) Mass input driven agriculture, leading to reduction of food diversity, a very critical requirement for balanced nutrition,

(ii) High volume processed food products, tasty but low on nutrition, which have reached remote corners of the country. This has developed vested interests in food industry.

 

Our approach envisions a community which takes charge of nutrition needs and overcomes above challenges.

 

The Twin Challenges for Maternal and Child Health in India: Iron & Proteins, and Technology driven Local Solutions

Author – Dr.Bhaskar Datta, Associate Professor, Chemistry and Biological Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, India.

India accounts for the highest number of undernourished people in the world totalling close to 200 million. Steady improvements have been made between 2004-06 and 2018-20 with India recording one of the highest reductions in total number of undernourished in Southern Asia. Malnourishment is a multi-factorial challenge and the steady reduction in total number of malnourished individuals points to overall improvements in health practices and access to clean water and nutritious food. Nevertheless, the most profound effects of malnourishment are observed in children below 5 years and women of reproductive age. Nearly 30% children in the 0-5 year age-group are stunted while 53% women are affected by varying degree of anaemia.

The distribution of undernourishment is heterogeneous across the country. Interestingly, while the prevalence of stunting and underweight in children has decreased over the past 5 years, the total number of anaemic individuals has increased. These trends could be attributed to macro- and micronutrient intake with fewer than 1/3rd of all women consuming adequate amounts of both. Consumption of macronutrients in the form of carbohydrates and proteins is consistently below the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) levels prescribed by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR). The household consumption of micronutrients in the form of vitamins and minerals such as iron ranges from inadequate to severely deficient. Iron deficiency is associated with the majority of anaemia prevalent in India. A mind-boggling 67% of children in 2019-21 had varying degrees of anaemia, an increase of 8% from 2015-16.

 

Advances in industrial food processing with an emphasis on “food safety”, but not nutrition, has produced an ecosystem of inexpensive processed foods. The World Health Organization (WHO) has qualified undernourishment as protein energy malnutrition, to better explain the imbalance in supply of protein and energy with the body’s demands. The consumption of disproportionately high levels of processed sugars and saturated fats has resulted in a sharp increase in obesity in children and young adults especially in urban centres. The sub-optimal levels of macro- and micronutrients in diet is ultimately associated with chronic non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, dyslipidemia and diabetes.

Notably, while the country has witnessed a systematic strengthening of policies governing food safety, nutritional security is yet to experience as much vibrancy. Considering the massive number of women and children in India who face severe macro- and micronutrient deficiencies, a case is to be made for looking beyond the simple prescription of healthy diet plans and eating habits. Innovations that allow “health foods” to be accessible for all economic segments of India are likely to address the challenges in nutrition while aligning with current global market forces. To begin with, protein and iron would be ideal core ingredients in such innovations.

 

It took a global pandemic to energize discussions surrounding nutritious food. People’s engagement in culinary activities and food entrepreneurship was visible throughout the pandemic-related disruptions. For some, this was a hobby that could be affordably pursued in one’s home. For many others, this emerged as a vital source of income and employment.

 

While food entrepreneurship during the pandemic relied heavily on innovations in logistics, an emphasis on healthy products was widely evident. The buzz around health foods during covid-19 was a reminder that ‘unhealthy foods’ are all around us, enjoying huge market share among consumers from across all geographic, demographic and economic classifications.

 

Over the past two decades, codification of food safety norms in the country and alignment with global standards such as in labelling of packaged foods have gradually improved consumer confidence. One example of enlightened food manufacturing is the fortification of packaged grains, cereals and oils with micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Further, the Indian government has announced that all rice distributed under public food security schemes will be fortified with iron and folic acid by 2024. In spite of these positive developments, two key aspects of food entrepreneurship and manufacturing need to be rejuvenated.

 

First, entrepreneurial efforts emerging from economically weaker sections need access to scientific and technological inputs to develop knowledge-driven products. Ventures that are commercializing cultural legacy food products may have a straightforward and assured revenue generation model but are unlikely to be competitive in nutritional value and market reach. For example, women microentrepreneurs in a low-income community preparing packaged farsan are unlikely to face challenges in product placement in their neighbourhoods. If the same group could develop a protein-rich and iron-containing farsan, they could also address the nutritional requirements of their primary consumers. In doing so, it is possible that their manufacturing and processing techniques need to be revised for  enhanced nutritional value of ingredients and avoid unsafe handling practices in their complete supply chain.

Large numbers of women in such socio-cultural contexts manage the food habits of their entire family. Training women microentrepreneurs in the art of assimilating scientific inputs is likely to amplify good health practices in their immediate families. Second, entrepreneurial efforts emerging from economically affluent sections need to be inclusive of customers from across all economic backgrounds. It is not uncommon to see a child of migrant labourers living significantly below poverty line eating a bag of purchased branded potato chips. If this kid can be happier, eating a similarly purchased bag of ‘health food’ with suitable amounts of protein and iron, it would signal a successful convergence of food safety and nutrition. Both of the above aspects require deep and pro-active engagement of food scientists and professionals. These could be further facilitated by academic and research institutions that identify challenges faced by the entrepreneurs as possibilities for collaborative problem-solving.

 

Food products that combine cultural culinary practices with scientific and technological inputs are likely to fulfil grassroots efforts to address prominent health challenges in the country, including the deficiency of iron and proteins among women and children. This will also generate local enterprises and a local circular economy, ensuring longterm sustainability and replicability.

 

 

Dr. Bhaskar Datta is an Associate Professor, Chemistry (jointly with Biological Engineering) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, India. His group is working on developing protein and micronutrient-rich foods, in addition to other research projects in food. He can be contacted by clicking here