Edition #37
July 2024
You need to Speak…
You need to Engage
The last two months have seen some passionate exchanges on the WhatsApp group of WOW.
Every discussion and debate was conducted with constructive lock-in of minds on issues that centred around effectiveness of solutions Solution Providers offer as well as those relating to managing sick and ailing of public water bodies.
The question leaders have asked is: how can we galvanise more groups for demonstrable action on localised solution models. How do we stop people from implementing solutions like recharging of deep borewells only because a client seeks it. How do we stop homes and apartments doing just that bit for clearing regulations without understanding the full benefit of water harvest. Are there campaigns we can run. And what are those campaigns. Who do we reach it to and how.
These last two months have seen a dozen or more new members coming on board this thinktank for water. All of them who have sustained their interest in the water domain for over twenty years. All of them formidable in their experience, intensity of purpose and their powerful resonate with the central purpose of WOW Action Forum.
Questions have remained. What do you want to seek from your participation at this Group. What is help you need in things you seek to initiate in your apartment or neighbourhood that has remained in your mind and not taken forms of action for want of support from others.
When you work across nonprofits to bring synergy on sustainability, what are the challenges you encounter? If you want to work on concerns of water or communities what can you offer or will want as help and support.
It’s appropriate to close this with a stirring call to action that came from Shri Subba Rao of Hyderabad. He said, “How do some of the younger members learn from the senior professionals here and galvanise action?
“Buffer zones need protection. Where are the ornithologists. Where are others willing to play and engage and involve. Why are we changing lakes into ponds. What happens to the micro habitats of slopes around the water bodies. Some of us can inspire action taking the baton from the senior mentors and leaders here.
“If others don’t speak, and engage in the conversation how will we get a glimpse into their minds and your commitment?!
“As a group we must put ourselves before people who influence such courses.”
You can see what this means. Please engage. Mail me at Hariharan@AltTech.Foundation. Set your responses down at the WhatsApp Group. Join more of the WOW Action Forum meetings. Anything but not act!
- Hari Haran
To every reader of Water Voices…
To all speakers, participants, mentors, enablers.. No matter how little you think you have managed to achieve. it is important to recognize 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.
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?
Make World of Water Your Cause!
Water Voices August 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 August 2024
Solid - Free Sewage
Some Case Studies
- Apurva Shah
Principle Consultant
Avani Enterprise, Ahmedabad
Date and Time : August 08, Thursday at 6PM IST
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 February WOW Meetings
Follow us on :
WOW_AF
1. What is WATER Really ? | Arti Ahluwalia
2. Learning Lessons from the Past | Arti Ahluwalia
3. The Future of Water in Us All | Arti Ahluwalia
4. Politicians never Discuss Issues Pertaining to Water Anywhere | Shobit & Arti Ahluwalia
5. The Bengaluru Water Crisis's Backstory | Hari Haran & KS Gopal
6. Water is a Global Issue Not Just in Our Country | Rajeev Kulkarni
1. Efficient Water Distribution: A Design Approach | Krishna Kumar
2. Types of Water Distribution Networks | Krishna Kumar
3.The Heart of Water Supply: Pumping Distribution Networks | Krishna Kumar
4. Identifying Critical Points in a Distribution Network | Krishna Kumar
5.Navigating the Challenges of Water Distribution | Krishna Kumar
6. Pump Optimization: The Key to Efficient Distribution | Krishna Kumar
7. 24/7 Water Supply: An Improvement over Conventional Systems? | E. Nandakumar
8. Can Pressurized Systems Lower Water Costs | K S Gopal & Krishna Kumar
RainReach : Inspiring 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 neighbouring 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.
Summer vacation is over, and school has started. Children are coming to school very happily, eager to enjoy their school life. Additionally, AltTech Foundation is ready to educate children on the installation of rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems and other fields where we can make a positive impact. We are committed to making meaningful changes and enhancing their educational experience
As part of our regular work, we are kick-starting a menstrual hygiene campaign specifically for girls at Praksha Nagara Govt High School and Yashvantapura Govt High School.
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...
Government High School Prakasha Nagara
Headmistress Smt. Manjula of Praksha Nagara School addressed the girl students, announcing that a young doctor, Dr. Deeksha, will conduct an awareness program on menstrual hygiene. She welcomed the entire Alt Tech staff, Dr. Deeksha, and the students to
After the Headmistress's welcome, Dr. Deeksha started the program with a beautiful presentation, showcasing the tools and materials she planned to use.
After the presentation on menstrual hygiene, students and staff interacted with Dr. Deeksha. She clarified some personal queries and engaged in further discussion
After the presentation and discussion, the program concluded with the distribution of hygiene kits to the students
Government High School Yashvantpura
After completing the menstrual hygiene program at Praksha Nagara, the team proceeded to Yashvantapura High School. There, Headmistress Prabha warmly welcomed the team, introduced them to the students, and requested that the students maintain silence during the program.
Dr. Deeksha began her presentation on menstrual hygiene with a demonstration. The students actively participated and listened attentively.
During and after the program, some teachers also got involved, interacting with the students and Dr. Deeksha. Dr. Deeksha clarified the girls' queries and assisted them with their personal concerns.
A wonderful session came to an end after addressing the students' queries. The team then distributed hygiene kits to the students. The students were very happy about the program and shared their feedback with Dr. Deeksha and the team.
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.
Team
Foundation Green.
COURSES OFFERED BY FOUNDATION GREEN
- Water Proficiency
- Water Expert
- Climate Change & Environment
Discover eco-learning with:
E - Learning
Mentorship from Experts
Online Assignment
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Join our community of experts and Register Now for reasonable prices.
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/