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TECHNOLOGY

purposes. they are very clean and accessible.” ground situation to make a meaning full
B Pydapu Naidu, the principle of Zila The organisation came up with this impact,” informed Sanchaita.
Parishad High School (ZPHS) in Pen- idea of using technology to improve wa- “Looking at the grassroots reality in
durthi city in Andhra Pradesh has a simi- ter and sanitation infrastructure for ru- rural villages, we have designed our pro-
lar story to tell. ral villages in the year 2013. The Google ject. We decided to build water purifying
According to Naidu, water stations Impact Challenge winning idea of SANA stations by using whatever raw water
have been very useful to the school. was to provide clean drinking water and source available for use, such as, pond,
He said, “Our school is situated in a ru- build bio-toilets by building Solar pow- lake, well, etc. And we used the wasted
ral area and we have more than 1300 er compact water purification station water from the purifying process for
students. The students have faced a which will purify local water resources. washing and flushing in bio-toilets,” she
lot of problems because there was no Sanchaita Gajapati Raju, founder of added.
purified water available in the school, SANA talked about her vision behind the The water stations are run by solar
except borewell water which was the project, said, “When I talk about water power which makes it an environment-
only source of drinking water. It has and sanitation — these are the building friendly project. Explaining the whole
caused regular sickness among school blocks for any kind of growth, develop- technical process of the ‘Solar power
children but the situation has improved ment, sustainable future of our society compact water purification station and
now.” and it is mostly about restoring human bio-toilets’, Sanchaita said, “Our aim was
SANA has set up a water purifying sta- dignity.” to make it a sustainable and green pro-
tion in the school itself and 20 bio-toilets ject. A huge amount of water gets wasted
for girls. Before this project, there were in the purification process. Bio-toilets
only 20 toilets for more than 1300 stu- A total of 1,500 houses need zero human intervention and it is
dents. Talking about the bio-toilets, Naidu in Boduvalasa are green. That’s how we create a loop of zero
said, “Earlier, the numbers of toilets were water waste.”
not sufficient but now we have in total 40 totally depended on the SANA has now approximate ‘40
toilets, 20 of them are bio-toilets which is water purifying stations water purifying station running in a
sufficient. The children have got most of different village in Andhra Pradesh’. It has
the benefits from both projects, specially to meet their regular received a welcoming approach from
the girl students are benefited.” drinking water needs. the locals as the whole water station
The establishment of bio-toilets and is handled by the locals itself once it
water purifying stations has also in- This water station has was setup.
creased the attendance of students in Sanchaita sees the success of the
the school. “Normally, we produce 2,500 changed the life of the project in the participation of the locals.
liter because attendance has increased. people in the village as She said, “You have to keep in mind that
As the students have clean drinking locals are involved because it is not busi-
water at school, they take water at home.” they don’t have to ‘walk ness, it is for people. The success of our
The school doesn’t sell water but miles to get water’ project is totally based on the social
allow the student to take it home if they impact we create.”
attend classes. As informed, parents are “We brought the village people on-
not allowed to take drinking water if the The intention of the organisation is board in the sense they give me a land
student is absent. towards bringing a consistent impact in where I build the bio-toilets, a room to
ZPHS in Pendurthi city provides the society drives from its ideology that set up the water station, roof to set up
resident to almost 250 students and ‘technology can be leveraged to trans- the solar panel. We give training to locals
most of the students come from nearby form lives.’ It also concerns women to run the entire project and give 100%
villages. empowerment as the initiatives; water ownership to the village people after its
A 10th standard student, Bindu, who purifying stations and bio-toilets has inauguration.”
walks almost 2-3 kilometers to ZPHS brought a positive change in the life of Water is a synonym to life and a
every day shared her part of being ben- many women in Andhra Pradesh. healthy life demand a safe environment
efited by the water purifying project and The grassroots reality shows that most to live. And, with the help of technol-
bio-toilets, said, “I come from a nearby of the ‘girls have to drop out of school ogy, villages like Boduvalasa in Andhra
village. We don’t have clean drinking due to lack of safe toilets and women are Pradesh could set an example for the
water resources at home. The water sta- mainly responsible to ensure availability rest of India. If access to clean water and
tion at school is very useful to me and my of drinking water at home for which they bio-toilets could bring change in Bindu’s
fellow batch mates.” had to walk miles.’ life then it could impact many more like
She further said, “Drinking borewell “We take help of local district admin- Bindu in different parts of India.
water caused us many waterborne dis- istration to navigate the local grassroots
eases. And the bio-toilets are lifesaver as reality. You need to understand the LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM

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