Students in Odisha develop ‘smart water dispenser’

BERHAMPUR: Three students from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Berhampur, developed a ‘smart water dispenser’ to ensure equal distribution of drinking water through pipelines in any urban or rural habitat to combat the future water crisis.

This ‘smart water dispenser’ has been developed by P Biswanath Patra of Class XI, Sawambhu Mandal and Sritish Kumar Gouda of Class X with support of their physics teacher Santosh Kumar Padhi.

‘Smart water dispenser’ is an electronic water flow controlling mechanism that can replace the water meter and provide control of the cost amount of water supply to the authorities for equal distribution. The cost of the prototype is just Rs 2,000. Its main components include an easily available microprocessor, a solenoid valve and a flow sensor.

As per Padhi, Commissioner, Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) and the local executive engineer of the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) have already shown interest in the practical use of the project and requested the 15 units for its trial.

According to Patra,  these units can be connected to water supply pipes to each house in an area that will be directly connected to a central server of the local governing body by GSM or Wi-Fi. The central server can decide and control the supply of an equal amount of water to every home as per need, supply or stock and can eliminate unnecessary misuse of water.

After participating in ‘Atal Tinkering Marathon 2018-19’, this innovative project is shortlisted as the top 50 innovations under the ‘Atal Innovation Mission’ of Niti Aayog.