Rs 2.5-crore prize announced for innovators of drinking water solutions

The/Nudge Foundation has partnered Ashirvad Pipes and principal scientific adviser's office for the 18-month challenge

Bengaluru-based non-profit The/Nudge Foundation in partnership with plumbing brand Ashirvad Pipes and the office of the principal scientific adviser to the government on Thursday announced a prize worth a sum of Rs 2.5 crore for innovators working towards access to clean drinking water.

The initiative, The/Nudge Prize | Ashirvad Water Challenge, will offer Rs 1.75 crore to the winner besides grants to finalists and span 18 months, supporting entrepreneurs in developing and scaling solutions through a network of investors, technology and knowledge partners, and policy advisors.

Sudha Srinivasan, CEO of The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation, stressed the importance of a circular approach to using water for reasons of sustainability in the context of a looming fear of zero days and lack of clean water even in a heightened focus on hygiene resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Although, according to government data, the number of households (out of 19 crore households) with tap water supply grew from 17 per cent since the start of the Jal Jeevan Mission in 2019 to over 40 per cent last year, Srinivasan said there is a long way to go.

The Jal Jeevan Mission aims to supply safe drinking water through tap connections to all rural households by 2024. Initiatives such as the water challenge would complement the administrative push, and “sarkaar, samaj and bazaar” (government, people and the market) have to work together towards this end, Srinivasan added.

The prize seeks solutions to source water purification, smart distribution and storage provisions ensuring sustained clean drinking water availability and accessibility, and recycling solutions like water source recharge, desalination, and wastewater treatment to increase availability of drinking water in regions with scarcity.

The evaluation criteria for the solutions include scalability with a sustainable unit economics of the business model, significant increase in access to clean drinking water and social and environmental impact.

Participants of the Prize will be supported by advisers, partners and experts such as Asit K Biswas (distinguished visiting professor, University of Glasgow), Vedika Bhandarkar (chief operating officer, Water.org), V K Madhavan (CEO, WaterAid India) and Yugal Kishore Joshi (director, Jal Jeevan Mission). Investor partners include social impact venture funders such as Social Alpha, Bharat Innovation Fund, Aavishkaar, Caspian, Lightrock and Upaya Social Ventures. While among knowledge partners are OECD Mission Action Lab, IHE Delft, WaterAid, Water.org and India Water Portal, and incubator and accelerator partners include Imagine H2O Asia, Indus Water Institute, Pilani Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Society and Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre, IIT Kanpur.

K Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific adviser, Government of India, said in a press release, “The government of India believes that multi-stakeholder partnerships are key to bringing about transformative changes to address issues of national priorities. Through the The/Nudge Prize | Ashirvad Water Challenge, we are witnessing the collaborative and catalytic role government, academia, industry and innovators can play in finding scalable solutions for water security, along with ensuring sustained drinking water availability, reducing barriers to access (social and geographic), and devising recycling solutions, thereby improving health and hygiene in communities.”

“Access to clean drinking water should be treated as a fundamental right. Improved access to clean drinking water can be empowering with many positive spin offs such as improved quality of life, reduced health risks and increased income among those communities, which currently lack easy access to it,” said Ashirvad Pipes Managing Director Deepak Mehrotra. “Water management is in the DNA of Ashirvad and we are happy to partner in this initiative,” he added.