Water Innovation Challenge Competition-2021 kicks off

The Water Innovation Challenge Competition-2021 started on Tuesday with a view to crowd sourcing innovative tools and platform solutions for citizens and industries.

The programme will raise awareness among people about reducing water pollution which will lead to an opportunity to introduce systems for water recycling and reuse, stated speakers at the competition's opening ceremony which was held online.

Attending the programme as the chief guest, Senior Secretary of the Ministry Of Water Resources Kabir Bin Anwar said, "We are consuming water in an unplanned and uncontrolled way and polluting waterbodies by discharging wastes in the canals and rivers."

"This pollution is playing a role to destroy the whole ecosystem as water is the most valuable part of the environment. The reality is that we still cannot understand the value of water resources," he said.

He recommended raising awareness among people about the misuse of water, for which a multisectoral approach is crucial. University students have to be included in the processes, he opined.

Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) Managing Director Taqsem A Khan said, "Innovation in Wasa has started in 2009 and in the meantime we were able to make all our pumps automated which are being operated remotely from a control room."

"Further, we are going to initiate a digital meter system which will be connected to our server to assess the real-time consumption. Then no meter reader will be needed for the bill, it will be generated automatically in a transparent way," he added.

The month-long virtual competition for the youth is jointly organised by Unilever Pureit, a2i (Aspire to Innovate), Dhaka Wasa, Department of Environment, 2030 Water Resources Group, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services and Bangladesh Computer Samity.

Representatives of those organisations attended the ceremony and delivered speeches.