Water Bank Foundation Trust showcases top 100 innovations in India

Proposes water to be the basis of sustainability at UN 2023 Water Conference

The Water Bank Foundation (WBF) Trust, a non profit working on various issues around water, showcased their top 100 technology innovations in India for their next generation OáS Well Drinking Water Purifier.

It also signed an MOU with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) alumni founded WHEELS Global Foundation on March 24 as it held five pioneering UN-approved events during the UN 2023 Water Conference in New York.

Besides the global launch of next generation drinking water purifier, kick-starting tech enabled mission BarterWATER for sustainability, it held virtual events to boost the role of social institutions like academia and panchayat for water action.

Read: Safe Water Network event highlights roles of women in clean water supply chain (November 11, 2021)

The webinars in conjunction with the UN 2023 Water Conference held on World Water Day, allowed almost 250 experts to brainstorm to align to boost UN’s recognized Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) via India’s local self-governance model – Panchayat, according to a media release.

The exclusive events were attended by more than 30 academics, politicians, world leaders, and industry professionals, began with a session on the benefits of Healing Water Meditation, to highlight the importance of water within us, and around us.

OáS Well Drinking Water Purifier, a highly anticipated leap in clean-water technology, declared among the Top 100 innovations in India topped the list of innovations in WASH (Global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene).

Water Bank Foundation also introduced its flagship mission, BarterWATER for sustainability, to make water the basis of a local-sustainable economy, and to use drinking water as the basis to boost the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

At the live event, Rajat Gupta, Chairman of WHEELS Global Foundation (WGF) and Ruyintan (Ron) Mehta, President of WIN Foundation, signed an MOU with VAS Bros Enterprises Pvt Ltd, (Organic Aqua Solutions) in an effort to pilot a sustainable model for Arsenic-mitigation, in one panchayat (a cluster of Arsenic-poisoned villages) in Bihar.

Read: A personal look at safe water access and gender equity in India (August 17, 2021)

“Apart from providing a sustainable solution to avail arsenic-free, pure, safe, and healthy drinking water to the villagers, we aim to demonstrate a robust rural WASH model using bartering water for the behavior change in sanitation.” said Saket Kumar, President & Managing Trustee of WBFT.

Founded by IIT alumni, WGF focuses on their six pillars; water, health, education, energy, livelihood, and sustainability while WIN Foundation supports and facilitates innovation in the areas of Water and Sanitation (WatSan) and Maternal and Child Health (MCH), primarily in India and apply it in empowering and improving the lives of underprivileged sections in a sustainable manner.

The final UN event hosted by Water Bank Foundation focused on highlighting the role of academia to boost sustainable technology development, making academic complexes net-zero, and to build courses, workshops, events, and contents to build ecological ethos amongst students.

More than a dozen water action agenda commitments were taken during the events by WBF, and its partner organizations.

UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, said, “The UN 2023 Water Conference in March must result in a bold Water Action Agenda that gives our world’s lifeblood the commitment it deserves.”

Read: Safe Water Network calls for collaborative effort to tackle water problem (October 27, 2018)

The special attention of the UN 2023 Water Conference was the new initiatives of Water Bank Foundation to get time commitment by individuals for its water action via campaigns BarterTIME & WaterTIME, as UN also highlights that water is everyone’s business.

WBFT exists with a vision to value pure, safe, and healthy drinking water as the basis of local-sustainable economy to educate, empower, enable, and then engage the local community into the actions related to the agendas of SDGs, according to the release.