Edition #34
January 2024
Let's Hear It From the Forum ...
Looking back at the year...
When we recall some reflective moments about this same time last year or the year before, we know how right [or foolish] we were over the year. We realise how little we have learnt... If there is one thing that we can wish for ourselves for the year or for our lives, it is humility, and the understanding of how little we know.
This last year saw many of you have grown to be more appreciative, supportive, encouraging and even admiring, of what we do together. Many hundreds more joined in, registered at the Forum's online meetings.
There are times we are self-critical -- oh, well, it's easy to fall into the trap of only looking at the things we need to improve on, things we weren't able to get done.. whether at the WOW Action Forum, or at Foundation Green, or at RainReach -- the programme that gained a deal of speed and traction during 2023, thanks to Dr Raj and Global Water Works in Illinois.
We remind ourselves that it helps to think about the positive differences we were able to make in the year, while not resting back on any laurels. It doesn’t matter how big or small they were -- those differences -- or even how many people we managed to impact.
Many of us are healthily restless at the little we do as 'action on ground', and we all mean well. We are not accusatory, we are only sharing our lament at our inability to not get enough things done.
To conduct the 150th WOW Action Forum Session in as many weeks over 3 years, shows that we have been relentless, committed, and brought a deal of discipline in holding nearly one session a week. Yes, tt is indeed a big deal!
So congratulations to every one of you who made it happen ... the speakers, the participants, the mentors, the enablers.. No matter how little you think you have managed to achieve. it is important to recognise and celebrate all the changes you have made happen.
All you have to do is to look at the rich archive of video extracts and you will see the effort that Tej in the last year, and others in the previous years have made, to extract the right content, offer them the right headlines and host them -- unfailingly, every week. The minor miracle is that we have all accomplished this with nearly nothing as financial support from anyone.
Those Audacious Goals
There are goals we had set and we did not achieve. Because they were too big, We said 3 years ago that every city achieving a token 1000 crore litres -- or 10 billion litres -- will bring impact. Other times we realise that the fulcrum of our goals shifted subtly. The discourse in the last on how entire cities and the world has to move toward Sludge-Free Sewage -- led by the indefatigable Dr Upendra Raval -- has taken centre-stage. The brilliant exposition from the Chicago-based Dr Malcolm Fabiyi in the first week of January -- a day prior to my writing this -- offers exciting promise of what WOW can do...
The WOW Leaders Group, even if small, has been brimming with insights, hope, enthusiasm and impossible levels of energy... Ravalji in his adoringly self-effacing ways says he is a modest student of the complex sets of phenomena that govern water. His drive has been infectious and has powered engagement from others.
We need many more hundreds of people to visit the Archives and learn from it. We need to learn how to secure far greater participation from people like you and I who want to know but don't know that we even exist! BigTech and NASSCOM have been trying to help WOW but this needs to gain more traction.
Share with us Your Honest Take?
Will you help us have an honest look at what we should set as goals? What we should try to do better this year? How can you help us go about this? Can you write in, share your thoughts on these 4 simple steps:
1. Can you list out goals you think WOW should drive this year?
2. What are those that no longer reflect the direction that WOW should take?
3. What are those goals you think we were unable to complete last year but still should seek to achieve?
4. Can you order those goals by importance and the impact it will have.
I believe as leaders at WOWk you do have a clear understanding of the direction we should be heading in, and goals that will help to realign these dreadful challenges around water in our cities, and our villages.
May 2024 deepen your purpose. it’s time to use what we’ve learned to bring together many more such people who are out there who are looking for the deep shared values that we have as a family at WOW and AltTech.
Team WOW Action Forum & Alttech.Founadtion
Make World of Water Your Cause!
Water Voices January 2024 is here. This is your monthly source of news and updates on all things at AltTech.. Send us your thoughts? We need to learn from you in a way that resonates with the good sense and sensibility of all readers – concerned citizens, dedicated volunteers, generous donors, and potential supporters.
Your Calendar of WOW AF meetings in January 2024
18th January- WOW #151 Chennai
Bioremediation for cleaning up lakes
By: Dr. Arun Kumar Sridharan, Vice President, Nualgi Nanobiotech.
Water Voices keeps you informed and engaged on the lively conversations at WOW Action Forum, and the inspiring effort at RainReach in schools for the underrepresented. This edition brings you compelling stories, excellent initiatives, and the impact of your contributions. Together, we can make a meaningful difference and address the water-related challenges that lie ahead.
Rich Insights From Water Leaders
Watch Now: Key Highlights from December WOW Meetings
Follow us on :
WOW_AF
1. GWW and WOW Action Forum RainReach Update | Raj Rajaram
2. Used Water is the Next Oil | Hari Haran
3. Few Investments are Worth More than Quality Drinking Water | Frank Solvenec & Greg Chick
4. Students Incites on Rain Water Harvesting System | Arbiya, Uzma & Sumayya
5. Water is More Precious than Petrol and Diesel | Vijaya Bhatt
1. Water Consumption by Food Crops | Ganesh Ramamurthi
2. Soil Moisture Measurement for Agriculture | Ganesh Ramamurthi
3. Soil Moisture and Farm Output | Ganesh Ramamurthi
4. Farmers Cultivation Depends on What his Neighbor's Do | Upendra Raval
5. Best Practices for Crop Cultivation | Ganesh Ramamurthi & KS Gopal
1. Protective Irrigation under Integrated Farming | Soumya Ranjan
2. Pre and Post Deployment of the Irrigation Project | Soumya Ranjan
3. Future Application to Tackle Agriculture Issues | Soumya Ranjan
4. Treated Waste Water For Agriculture | Krishnaswamy
5. A Success Story of RWH at SLBC Camp Hyderabad | Chandra Mouli
RainReach : Inspires Children and Teachers into Water Action
What is RainReach?
Rain Reach is a program of eco-education for school-going children.
Our Mission is Education of children through RainReach to ensure water conservation becomes a habit and solves the water problem by the next generation. We have here in this edition - and every month — lots of picture stories to present the story that’s unfolding every month.
Our mission is also to take Education on water for children, for adults, for technical people, in water and
in technologies for treating water or harnessing water…
How can children learn how to save sensibly, how to recycle, harvest and manage the water cycle. How can we build a generation of water-wise young Indians?
How can our schools and children inspire other neighboring buildings, homes and offices. RainReach guides with constant contact and help for the children.
We take to schools simple measures that help them understand how we need to treasure this precious liquid. As children move into their lives as adults, water will need to be entirely differently addressed.
It encourages learning-by-doing for kids of age 12-16 years with support from teachers and water industry volunteers or Water Mentors.
We aim to reach 50 schools in Bangalore. That is a start. But that is a large and formidable initiative and will depend on how we all work together – water mentors, faculty, and children.
Check this fascinating set of pictures and caption stories... You will then want to view the videos -- helpfully subtitled -- of what teachers and students say of RainReach and our interventions... Inspiring a new way...
Dec 09 - Evaluating the System at Kempapura High
Murthy Gangappa, a water veteran and WOW Member, took time off to visit the Kempapura school to check out the RainReach infrastructure. Seen here on the rooftop of the school.
With the year’s rains ending in November and the onset of rains coming up in April, we are getting senior children from schools to learn with their hands to maintain water infrastructure. Kids at Kempapura School helping with roof cleaning with Murthy Gangappa mentoring them on the basics of keeping rooftops clear of litter.
Murthy Gangappa explains to a keen student how tanks are maintained and how storage has a key role.
Dec 11 - A soft session at Amruthalli Gov. High School
Murthy Gangappa conducts a litmus test to help students understand assessing pH value of water. Kids learn the importance of the scale which ranges from 0 (very acidic) to 14 (very basic). It is normal for water to have a range of between 6.5 and 8.5 on the scale.
Murthy Gangappa explains the PH table. Class 8 children Gov. High school Amruthalli.
A student observes the experiment with curiosity, while Murthy Gangappa explains water quality.
Dec 13 - Lions Club Team Visits Jakkur Gov. School
District Governor [Lions District 317F] Mr B S Nagaraj and Lions Charter President Anil Kumar B (right) at Gov. High School Jakkur. “It was an eye-opener for us,” said Mr Nagaraj. “The potential for such water literacy and powering schoolchildren to drive water efficiency is tremendous,” Here Mr Anil Kumar is discussing the rainwater filtration system installed at the school’s auditorium. RainReach treats rainwater to make it drinking water. Conventionally, rainwater is only used for recharging groundwater. This is a game-changer for the schools.
Lions DG Nagaraj [centre] and Charter President Anil Kumar [left] in conversation with Mr Humanthappa, Head Master of the Jakkur Gov. High School. RainReach solutions already in place ensures that this year [2024] over 60 per cent of the school’s drinking and washing water needs, is met from such harvesting systems. The Lions Club will soon nominate a few young Leo members who can help Team RainReach to conduct continuing improvement programmes on water at all RainReach Schools. The District Governor explained to the HeadMaster the benefits of the RainReach rainwater harvesting systems and how the implementation of RWH systems from AltTech.Foundation will also help students learn water conservation practices.
Mahesh, Coordinator at RainReach, explains to the visiting dignitaries how RainReach is helping students as well as teachers in reducing water demand.
Lion DG and Charter President taste the drinking water. Harvested rainwater is put through a rainwater filtration system and then for precaution processed through the existing RO filter with Team RainReach maintains in every adopted school. At this school RainReach takes care of safe clean drinking and washing water needs of around 400 students every day.
DG Nagaraj listens while Charter President Anil Kumar checks out the rainwater harvesting pipes. Govt. High School Jakkur
Lion Charter President Anil Kumar explains a nuance to a student who explained to them his learning and impressions of the rainwater harvesting system. Mr Hanumanthappa and DG Nagaraj look on.
Physical Education Teacher Dinesh (left), and Science Teacher Vijay (left of Mr Dinesh) share their experience of RWH Systems now in place at the school.
Dec 18 & 19 - RainReach Enables an Eye Camp at Jakkur School
Photo of a youngster discussing his vision with an Ophthalmologist Dr. Basavaraj during the Eye Camp run by the Lion's Club and RainReach.
“This is work we enjoy doing, especially catching them young on such optical deficiencies,” says Dr. Basavaraj who is part of the team from Zeiss.
The Eye Camp Team in action. Left extreme is Dr Basavaraj. Centre with back to camera is Dr Kumar. Right extreme is Dr Harish. Students being checked are sharanappa, Arun, and shiva. In the background
Dr Kumar checking range and sight of a student.... Satish students at the Jakkur school had their eyes checked in this eye camp.... The findings are interesting.... The Lions Club has promised to share the data in a way that we can inform other RainReach BBMP Schools and ensure that the Eye Camp extends to many thousands of children.
Lion Anil (center) chatting Eye Camp professionals. Left [with back to camera] is Deepti. To his left is Manoj. Lady seated [centre] is Surekha. To her left is Suman. Right foreground with back to camera is Radha.
Dr Kumar examining Student Anu of Class 10 at Gov. High School Jakkur, students are patiently waiting in queue and are excited to have their eyes examined.
Expectant students waiting for their turn. All had the same thoughts in their minds… “Are my eyes fine? Do I need to use glasses?”
Dr Basavaraj listens to Student Rekha [Class 10 ] as Dr Deepa [in yellow] looks on.
Yes, the eye camp was meant for students! But look at teachers like Govindaraju and Dr. Basavaraj [below] who were eager to get their eyes examined as well! “We thank the AltTech Foundation and Lion's Club for organizing this wonderful eye camp at no cost,” enthused one teacher.
Pictures of not just teachers but admin staff of the school getting their eyes examined as well! “We thank the AltTech Foundation and Lion's Club for organizing this wonderful eye camp at no cost,” enthused one teacher. Mahesh of RainReach said, “It shows how much we need to do for schools beyond water…. Our Menstrual Hygiene camp of November, and now the Eye Camp of December need to be replicated in all schools that we are working in. RainReach is committed to this.”
Jan 5 - AltTech’s UV Krishna Mohan Rao Visits RainReach Schools
A proud ‘UVK Sir at the entrance to Jakkur Govt High School during a visit to Bangalore. He had just a day and other meetings, but chose to take a ride on Mahesh’s motorbike! [Below] He examines the Rain Filtration system. “I am keen on ensuring that the filtration system and the water quality we offer to students is of the highest order'.
Some further pics of UVK Sir… At the auditorium of the school… With colleague Mahesh….
It’s great to have Cohort Africa!
Foundation Green launched a new Cohort in Africa to much enthusiasm and zest for learning
It is appropriate that I write this even as the COP 28 is on in Dubai. Mainland Africa is full of hope and young aspirants as the continent’s 54 nations gears up to meet the challenge of water, energy and climate change over the next decade.
From Africa’s current population of 1.4 billion – about the same as India’s – it is bracing up to another one billion people being added in the next 25 years to 2050. Africa needs management of energy resources and water critically if it has to ‘survive’ this generation and next.
How can Africa’s new generation of trained professionals make the effort to enlarge the green footprint across the continent? When Dubai-based Caroline ‘Care’ Fernandes of The Krusallis heard of what Foundation Green offers as hands-on learning, she expressed interest in driving and shaping a Cohort Africa, for she saw the potential the series of Online Courses hold for mainland Africa. Little did I realise the speed at which she could influence Nigeria-based Ibiso Ikiroma-Owiye and others at The Krusallis to galvanise young African students and working professionals to join Cohort Africa, in less than month!
Ibiso is a Radio Presenter, heads as Executive Director ‘Grassroots to Global Sustainable Development Network’, a youth-led organization in Niger Delta, Nigeria, providing solar lamps for students in marginalized coastal communities in her region. Ibiso is also a marine researcher and mangrove conservationist, and has galvanised young Nigerians to plant over 10,000 mangrove seedlings in the deforested coastal communities of Rivers State with the Save Nigeria Mangroves Foundation and Centre for Environment Human Right Development since 2020.
Caroline herself brings a multitude of talents. She is a self-styled ‘Learning Architect’, an ‘Ecosystems Gardener’, a ‘Quantum Coach’ among many other things. She is also the brand ambassador for several diversity & inclusion initiatives including being the founder of a 5-year-old inclusive community #VibhaforInclusion that offers 2500+ people globally, a safe space for human beings to connect, learn and grow through the ecosystem.
Caroline and Ibiso quickly got into the act, to invite young professionals across mainland Africa and other parts of the world, and excited them to see the powerful narrative they could build with many vibrant youngsters across the vast continent, who are full of aspirations, who are trained to be a variety of things from financial inclusion managers running microfinance, to those who have studied Ecology or History or International Studies, among many other things.
As the idea of creating this first of many cohorts evolved rapidly over recent weeks, Caroline reached out to Ibiso. They both agreed to work on it. And so was born this programme that now spans Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ghana, India and Dubai. There will be many more young Africans from a host of other countries who will join the programme as we ring in 2024.
It took Ibiso and the team, with Cephas Amoaior and other passionate members a couple of weeks to cobble together this team of excellent young Africans for this first Cohort. In the meetings and chats we have had on the Cohort, I see they are full of hope, and eager to learn. As Caroline said, “This is not conceptual. Concepts can be got from the web world.”
As many as 45 people have signed up for this programme – students and working professionals. You can see that it takes time and effort to stitch a programme like this, with an eye to advancing solutions of this kind and scaling impact in each of these countries with these members of Cohort Africa. Says Caroline, “If we can take these solutions into our homes, offices, and into policy at city and state levels, it will inspire Africa, for it touches our lives, and the learning helps us address things that impact us every day – like water or energy. We understand solutions, and we bring our own inventive thinking to problem-solving.”
Beyond these sessions, the modules of Foundation Green will offer a deeper dive into approaches, solutions. And those are available at Foundation Green.
One of the students who is part of the Cohort [and their many responses are listed in the section that follows this one], said “Until I got to participate myself in the Water MDP I did not realise the full importance of the hands-on, practical, learn-by-doing approaches that Foundation Green offers. There is no ‘boring’ stuff on the bad news around us, or the complex language that the UN or COP employs without actually telling us what we should do on ground, in our homes and workplaces!”
Well, yes, it is about leveraging sustainability and driving long-term growth for a company, or a community, in the post-pandemic world. But it is more than that. This Cohort Africa, one hopes, is the first of a series of 3-week programmes and a collaborative mission with Dubai-based Krusallis. It is evolving even as we speak. I see that it brings creative, innovative and sustainable solutions that offer enormous business potential for anyone wanting to work as a water entrepreneur or water manager.
Foundation Green is a coming together of framework designers, course visionaries, facilitators, content designers and community leaders. What I like most about it, is that the user-friendly online modules, intense interactions, and live assignments, all combine to give every participant the chance to solve real-life situations around the crippling challenge of water.
The entire cohort of nearly 50 young professionals [see the thumb sketch that follows, of each of the participants and the inspiring aspirations they articulate!
As they listen to the facilitators who share their experience of decades of work on water and watershed management, each of these participants is beginning to see that water is not about water at all, but that is about water management. It is startling to realise that the water crisis is exactly the same everywhere—from coastal Freetown in Sierra Leone, to Lagos in Nigeria on the Gulf of Guinea, to Harare at 5000 feet above sea level or Kadoma [3000 ft] in Zimbabwe or Nairobi [6000 feet] in Kenya or Mombasa [at sea level] to the Southeastern tip of Kenya. You and I know, dear reader, it is much the same across India and her hundreds of cities.
Foundation Green is about developing a nuanced understanding of the three dimensions of sustainability: society, environment and economy. It is about building a vocabulary, and a vision that explains how to create a ‘business culture’ of sustainability.
Come. Join us. Discover how to demonstrate the value of impactful investments of time, passion and of the invaluable gains you can bring to your community, to your housing neighbourhood, to the commercial building or IT park you work in, or a hotel you can help save water and money!
Foundation Green helps you plot and implement with a step-by-step approach a sustainable business model, with every solution backed up by Strategies that help students and working professionals of planning, finance, ecology, environment action with these online programmes that are ideal for those seeking a future-conscious approach to doing good and doing well for themselves.
The programme will help every participant gain strategies that will help achieve business goals while it deepens our commitment to sustainability. Anyone aspiring to be a Sustainability or Green manager, will learn to relate to the stories of such green initiatives. Now with Foundation Green, I realise what I myself really wanted is such practical solutions. Looking forward to more of the fantastic sessions of learning that Foundation Green offers.
Hari Haran Chandra.
Trustee, AltTech Foundation & Curator of Foundation Green.
What Cohort Africa says of the Programme
There is nothing more encouraging than warm testimonials from students for any mentor. Here are some of the young professionals offering their take on their learning. 1. Sahr John Koroma from Sierra Leone, 2. Adebisi Edon Funke from Nigeria, 3. Benneth Oyinna from Nigeria,
Sahr John Kodoma, Zimbabwe
Greetings, I am Sahr John from Kenmore, Eastern Paris, Sierra Leone, West Africa.
I am a participant from Sustainability Management Program and I want to use the opportunity to say a very big thank you to Altec Foundation, Crystal List and Grassroots to Global Sustainable Development Nigeria, And to all our facilitators, I want to say a big thank you to all of you.
This three weeks has been a period of insightful learning, you know, it's been a journey full of learning exercises, you know, vertical projects, you know, we've learnt a lot, we've learnt a lot about water audits, water conservation, water digitalization, Water sustainability.
We want to ensure that we have to implement the lessons learned in our local communities.
Thank you.
— Sahr John Kodoma, Zimbabwe
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— Adebisi Ebun Funke, Nigeria
Hello, everyone. My name is Adebisi Ebun Funke.
I'm excited to be part of this three weeks program in which I have gained invaluable knowledge about water sustainability. Initially, I have zero knowledge about water sustainability.
As a matter of fact, I'm also contributing to the own sustainability of the water's usage. But during the course of this program, I've been able to see that I've been doing the wrong thing.
And moving forward, I've learned that the most popular sources of water in my area, which is through borrow, is not a sustainable solution to water system, as the drawing water from deep aquafer is not sustainable because it is not renewable.
So I have decided that in my community, as much I can, I will try to create the awareness in person telling individuals that look we need to come to a sustainable solution of getting our water probably through natural resources such as rain, such as the river, such as other natural resources and
through Water Waste Management.
So I believe this is going to go a long way as well as creating awareness on the social media because just as I have zero knowledge before I joined this program, there are millions of people out there that doesn't have any knowledge about water, about the effects of draining water from the deep back
river because the most popular method of draining water in my area is the bowl and it is unsustainable.
Thank you very much lecturers, For bringing up this program and for making it an interactive one, I really enjoyed the aspects of instructiveness during the program.
Thank you very much sir and deeply grateful.
Adebisi Ebun Funke
Benneth Oyinna
Hello, my name is Bennett Oyinna, I'm a mechanical engineer and an energy planning engineer.
I am here to appreciate Alttech Foundation for this wonderful opportunity to go through a sustainability manager's course with respect to water management.
Water management entails clearly understanding the average consumption per household of water and other alternative sources of getting water that is different from the conventional digging of borewells that affect the heads on a daily basis.
We also have other sustainable practices such as construction of septic tanks and separation of the waste water from the fishes so that we could recycle this water for reuse within urban areas.
Harvesting when water is key to the avoidance of unsustainable digging of bore wells around the country and our neighborhood.
Thank you very much for this opportunity.
— Benneth Oyinna, Nigeria
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Alt. Tech Foundation is a not-for-profit, for-industry Foundation for
(i) Hosting city-wide campaigns for citizen collective action to save water & energy,
(ii) Producing green managers and leaders
(iii) Arming and equipping schoolchildren with water practices of the future.
WOW Action Forum is a globally pioneering effort for bringing collective private action to save very large quantities of water at apartments, at Industry, at tech parks, or hotels and hospitals or malls and other such buildings. The 2021 mission is set to save 1000 Cr lites with community-led action. This alone will bring a saving of 236 Cr in electricity bills for the city, and a reduction in carbon emission of nearly 300,000 tonnes equivalent.
WOW is a vibrant community of concerned citizens, volunteers, and supporters who share a common goal – to safeguard our precious water resources for future generations. By becoming a WOW member, you can actively participate in our initiatives, engage in meaningful discussions, and contribute to practical solutions for water-related challenges.
Don't miss this opportunity to be part of a movement that can truly change the world!
Visit our website today and sign up for WOW membership : https://www.alttech.foundation/