30 Mar IHUWASH Accelerator Update – Catalysing urban innovation in water and sanitation
The Innovation Hub for Urban Water, Sanitation and Hygiene or IHUWASH is a collaborative initiative between the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) and Ennovent. The three-year project is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and aims to improve the performance of urban WASH programs using a collaborative framework, incorporating both private and public participation. Under IHUWASH, national and city-level Innovation Hubs have been established to work closely with national level WASH stakeholders and the city administrations of Faridabad, Udaipur and Mysuru.
The IHUWASH Accelerator, implemented by Ennovent, is a program under the IHUWASH platform that finds, selects and supports scalable, market-based WASH innovations to solve key WASH problems in partnership with the 3 city governments. It presents entrepreneurs with a unique opportunity to demonstrate their business innovations’ ability to solve pressing WASH problems for city governments.
Launched in December 2017, the Accelerator sourced innovative, scalable, market-based applications that addressed these challenges. 58 high-quality applications were received, of which 23 innovations were shortlisted and presented to jury panels comprising municipal commissioners, key Smart City programme representatives, urban local government officials, and academic and industry experts. Based on the relevance of the innovation to address a pressing problem for the city, 15 innovations have been further shortlisted for pilot implementation. The IHUWASH Accelerator is a big step towards promoting innovation in WASH, and there is much scope for the involvement of a wider variety of partners to accelerate the process. We hope that this programme will create a sound foundation for increased collaboration in the WASH ecosystem and continue to grow beyond the three target cities.
In a series of posts, we will be highlighting the final IHUWASH cohort, along with their innovative products and approaches. Here is an initial sneak peek at the 15 innovations:
| Name | Organisation Bio |
| Biomass Controls | Creates community-scale sustainable toilets that convert human fecal waste into fuel and stored energy. It also recycles flush water into disinfected reusable water. |
| Boondh | Boondh menstrual cup lasts for 10 years, an alternative menstrual hygiene management system along with training and menstrual health programs to address menstrual hygiene problems. |
| eERGIPL | LIFE+ is a pre-fabricated, decentralized, biological blackwater and greywater treatment system. It uses anaerobic decomposition, dilution and aerobic reactions to prevent pollution by black or grey water. |
| Ekam Eco Solutions | Accelerated Fecal-sludge decomposition with aerobic and anaerobic bacterial culture. |
| Environment Planning Group (EPG) | Integrated community water ATMs and bio-toilets. The company sells monthly water subscriptions with free toilet usage. Rejected water from RO flushes toilets and bacterial culture treats solid waste sustainably. |
| Foundation for Environmental Monitoring (FFEM) | A product that provides accurate, low cost, in-situ tests for water quality based on a smart-phone. The product also allows integration with other data management platforms. |
| Garv Toilets | Indestructible public toilets made of stainless steel that are pro-actively maintained through automatic toilet monitoring systems. |
| GenRobotics | Use of man-assisted robotic technology to eliminate manual scavenging of manholes. |
| Haqdarshak | Mobile application to help low-income households learn about various government schemes and apply to relevant schemes easily. |
| InnoDi | New water purification technology called Capacitive deionisation (CDI) reduces water wastage by 50%. Also effectively treats saline and brackish source water better than what RO systems. |
| Luminociti Networks | Modern cities have unengaged citizens. CitiXP improves engagement between city administrations and residents/ local business communities via a cloudbased platform. |
| Pee Buddy | It is a low-cost female urination device for women to stand and pee when they don’t have access to clean toilets. Prevents infections like UTI and makes toilets more accessible for women with arthritis, pregnancy or joint problems. |
| SquatEase | A unidirectional inclined toilet pan to eliminate improper usage of community toilets, thereby reducing recurring maintenance costs. It also makes toilets more accessible for users with physically challenges or disabilities. |
| Swacch Neer | Eco-friendly earthen water purifier that uses activated silicon from burnt rice husk and low chlorination to kill germs without removing enriching natural minerals from the water. |
| Tide Technocrats | Soil Bio-Filter (SBF) incorporates soil as the medium to hold the required micro & macro life forms called as “BioActive Soil” to cleanup wastewater. |
If you are interested in collaborating with the above organisations please reach out to us at aditi.chawla@ennovent.com.
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