BackHarnessing AI and Satellites for Water Conservation: Ashirvad Water Challenge's Finalists Unveil Next-Gen Solutions
The Ashirvad Water Challenge, hosted by The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation's Prize Program and Ashirvad Pipes, offers support and mentorship to innovative start-ups with scalable solutions for providing clean water to all
PremiumIndia's water crisis demands private entrepreneurship to complement the government's Jal Jeevan mission, which aims to provide safe tap water to every household by 2024. The Ashirvad Water Challenge, hosted by The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation's Prize Program and Ashirvad Pipes, offers a ₹2.5 crore prize, mentorship, and support to innovative start-ups that can prove they have scalable solutions for providing clean water to all. The program also partners with the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.
The challenge is now heading towards its conclusion, with the selection of seven finalists. In the first article in this series, we covered three finalists who are solving age-old problems associated with water management, from source to recycling. These companies are tackling the fundamental challenges posed by industrial water misuse, groundwater depletion, and lack of affordable water purification.
In Part 2, we will focus on the other four finalists, who have created innovative deep-tech solutions that are critical for keeping this unprecedented water infrastructure running.
Aumsat Technologies – Moon mission satellite technology to prioritise leak detection at scale
Aumsat was co-founded by Riddhish Soni, a former ISRO employee. The company uses technology originally deployed in the Chandrayaan-I mission to detect water on the moon to find issues in water pipelines over large areas, which often go unnoticed. The solution involves using an AI algorithm to analyse satellite images to find everything from pipeline blockages and leakages to over usage of water.
“Leak detection technologies have remained relatively unchanged for the past 80 years, resulting in costly and inefficient processes for companies worldwide. Blind surveys are often conducted without the ability to target or prioritise leak detection, leading many agencies to only fix leaks after they have become visible or reported by customers. We solve this using satellite images that cover vast areas." - Riddhish Soni, Founder, Aumsat Technologies
Solinas Integrity – Smart robots to efficiently find pipeline leakage points
As the pipeline network is built at a staggering pace, underground leakages that lead to an estimated 30-40% wastage of water can threaten the whole mission, whose success depends on the judicious use of limited water sources.
Historically, identifying the location of a pipeline leakage has presented a significant challenge for water authorities, often forcing them to excavate extensive sections of pipes and roads to locate a single crack.
Solinas Integrity’s smart robot, christened the Endobot can be inserted into a pipeline network with a single perforation, and proceeds to map and find leakages or other defects, allowing engineers to make precise interventions efficiently.
“Growing up in a city that faced severe water scarcity every summer, I realised the importance of conserving water and minimising unnecessary wastage. While researching a solution to reduce water leakages in India's pipeline network, we discovered another critical issue - drinking water contamination. When we deployed our solution in Coimbatore, we identified several sewer intervention points in the drinking water supply, causing chaos for households and the government. Our innovation addresses these challenges by identifying contamination and leakage points, reducing wastage, and ensuring access to safe drinking water."
- Moinak Banerjee, Co-founder, Solinas Integrity
Smartterra – AI-powered analysis of pipeline water flow to detect issues and leaks
Prevention is always better than the cure, and Smartterra’s AI-powered analytical platform does exactly this for the water infrastructure. The company has developed a way to analyse water flow, pressure variations to predict issues such as leakages and defects before they happen, reducing the number of repairs required.
The Smartterra platform adapts to the utility’s unique data situation, being able to use siloed data across meter behaviour, consumer behaviour and historical maintenance to provide useful information almost immediately.
“India is rapidly expanding its water networks through initiatives like JJM and AMRUT, but these new or transitioning networks often face challenges such as low pressure, unmet demand, bursts, leaks, and illegal tapping. Addressing these underlying issues will require scalable and accurate digital approaches that can be institutionalised for the long-term success of these networks."
- Gokul Krishna, Co-founder, Smartterra
I47 labs – Smart meters to reduce water wastage by consumers
Even if the water pipeline network is running perfectly, wastage and overuse by end users is a significant problem. As the network grows, managing water meter readings, changing slabs and charging users correctly for their use becomes very complex.
The Aegir water management solution developed by i47 labs uses internet of things (IoT) technology and advanced analytics to manage water demand and achieve 30-40% savings in water consumption.
“Our focus is on reducing both water scarcity and wastage by implementing a platform and products that promote water conservation and integrate intelligent leakage and overuse alerts. Trickle leaks and unintended overuse can pose significant problems when it adds up. Any wastage, even at the last mile, represents a lost opportunity to utilise this precious natural resource effectively." Sajin K; co-founder, i47 Labs
Kanishka Chatterjee, the head of The/Nudge Prize that runs the Ashirvad Water Challenge believes this is a turning point for India’s water landscape. Thecoverage of piped water has reached 59% of Indian households till date, but the last 15-20% will prove tougher. According to Chatterjee, building the system is one part, but the bigger piece of the puzzle is in setting up an entrepreneurial ecosystem that can keep it running.
With technological innovations that complement the government’s infrastructure development as well as each other’s solutions, finalists of the challenge are poised to make this goal achievable, and free up crores of Indians to chase their dreams instead of going through the pain of waiting in line for water.
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