A floating trash barrier (FTB), developed by a Bengaluru firm and deployed in eight cities across India to trap trash in waterbodies, has won the Cleaning and Restoring India’s Water Bodies Challenge conducted by the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA).
The challenge was conducted by the Waste to Wealth Mission — Swachh Bharat Unnat Bharat Mission under the Office of the PSA during November 27, 2020 and February 17, 2021.
On October 18, the Bengaluru firm, AlphaMERS Ltd., received a communication from the Waste to Wealth Mission announcing that the FTB was selected as one of the winners of the challenge.
The FTB performance was evaluated by a jury panel comprising of experts from academia, industry, and the government. “Based on the panel evaluation, AlphaMERS Ltd.’s floating trash barrier was selected as one of the winners of the challenge. The panel observed that the floating trash barrier could address the serious environmental issue of floating solid waste pollution plaguing India’s waterbodies,” stated the communication.
The FTB uses the natural flow of water to bring the trash to the riverbank where it is deployed and from there the trash is manually or mechanically removed.
The FTB is deployed in eight cities — Bengaluru, Chennai, Puducherry, Hyderabad, Mysuru, Thanjavur, Tuticorin, and Coimbatore.
The FTB is said to be successful in cleaning up the Cooum in Chennai and also the Musi in Hyderabad. In Bengaluru, it has been deployed in some storm-water drains, and Nagawara and Dasarahalli lakes.
“There were many participants in the challenge but their technologies were not visibly working whereas ours was working. We took a mesh approach where the water flows past but the trash is stopped, whereas the other participants were using fabric booms which are basically used for oil spill,” said D.C. Shekar, director, AlphaMERS.