BENGALURU: It is now a fact that the world is running out of water. “The best solution to this prospective challenge is recycling water and make it reusable,” says Jitendra Singh Choudhary and team from M.I.T. Group of Institutes, Ujjain, who won the first prize at the National Social Enterprise Idea Challenge held at Azim Premji University (APU) in the city.
Titled ‘Shuddham’, the project has led to the development of a device which filters waste water from all institutions under the purview of Mahakkal Group in Ujjain. Jitendra claimed the machine helps recycle 500 litres of water a day.
“We have installed four such machines in a single college campus thus saving 60,000 litres of water per month. As producing water when all possible sources face various levels of depletion is completely impossible, the extent of water crisis that we are facing and would be facing more in years to come can be reduced only by recycling and reusing,” he told Deccan Chronicle.
The second prize at the event was bagged by a team from Kongu Engineering College, Erode, who presented the idea to recycle and reuse construction waste obtained from demolition of old concrete structures to produce sustainable building materials for the construction industries. The third prize was shared by teams from IIT Delhi and APU.
As many as 14 innovative solution models took centre stage at the final round of third edition of the event which took place on Saturday. More than 200 teams had submitted their innovative solution models from the domains of education, livelihood, health, sustainability and governance.
The ideas were evaluated by Vijay Pratap - Founder/ CEO, Ekgaon (agriculture-based social enterprise) and Suresh Krishna, CEO, Yunus Social Business along with Richa Govil - Associate Director, School of Development, Azim Premji University.
In his keynote address, S. Giridhar, Chief Operating Officer of APU noted that it is encouraging to see young minds actively thinking of solutions being keen on starting social enterprises.
“Solutions to these complex problems must be seen through an interdisciplinary lens – so we can see technology joining hands with sociology and philosophy,” he said.
