Hyderabad: Four finalists were shortlisted for Water Challenge 2021, which was launched by the Smart City Living Lab and The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) in February-March 2021 seeking innovative solutions for water woes in urban areas from startups working on water management.
These shortlisted ones include Oceo Water Pvt Ltd – Pipeline Water Leak Detection from Space (Jalashay). This uses AI-enabled hydrological analytics derived from satellite images to help public utilities to forecast and detect water leakages in water transmission networks without physically being present on the field. Another entity IIITH -Smart Water Meter Solutions offered low cost retrofit for digitisation of analog water meter, a viable replacement of expensive digital water meters. EyeNet Aqua & IITM suggested online water quality monitoring unit for water source and enduser node with indigenous chlorine sensors along with other sensors. Aqua-Q AB, SWEDEN – Water quality monitoring solution offered real-time online early warning system for quality assurance, smart sampling, tracking of micro-contaminants & removal of contaminants in drinking water and treated wastewater.
These shortlisted solutions will be demonstrated at IIITH within a month and the winner will stand a chance to do a solution pilot run in one of the cities of Telangana.
The challenge was launched in association with Government of Telangana and National Institute of Urban Management (NIUM) to find viable solutions to the problems faced regarding water quality, supply and non-revenue water by the cities.
According to AnuradhaVattem, the Lead Architect who coordinated the challenge, the panellists shortlisted these four after multiple rounds and thorough screening. Vamsi Kondoju, Officer on Special Duty to Principal Secretary MA&UD , who was one of the panel members said,: “While all the presentations were really good, we have finalised these solutions keeping the relevance and priority of MA&UD in mind”.