Introduction

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs(MoHUA) of the Government of India has launched the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission - Urban (SBM-U 2.0) to make the Indian cities garbage free and to remediate the legacy wastes using the scientific approach of waste management.

Also perceiving the opportunities in this field of solid and liquid waste management for entrepreneurs, the Swachh Technology Challenge has been launched to identify, mentor, support and develop enterprises in this field.

Surat Municipal Corporation, Surat Smart City Development Limited and the AIC SURATi iLAB Foundation had organised a one of its kind Swachhta Hackathon 2020 under the Swachh Survekshan 2021 which was targeting the problems and solutions in the domains of Social Inclusion, Zero Dump, Plastic Waste Management and Transparency with the theme of Idea to Business.

This initiative was presented by the Municipal Commissioner Shri Banchhanidhi Pani IAS, to the panel for SBM-U 2.0 and it was widely appreciated by everyone there and proclaimed to be a role model for identifying entrepreneurs in this field.

Accordingly it has been proposed that the Swachh Technology Challenge be launched across India in all the major cities. The city level winners will be then compete at the State Level and ultimately the State level winners will compete at the national level for the Swachhta StartUp Challenge 2022 in collaboration with Agence Française de Développement (AFD) in January 2022

Up to 10 selected projects could receive seed funding of approx. ₹ 25 Lakhs per selected project and 1 year dedicated incubation support from French Tech under the  Swachhta StartUp Challenge 2022.

The thematic areas for the challenge include Social Inclusion, Zero Dump, Plastic Waste Management and Transparency as detailed below:

Sr.No.

Solution Area

Type of Solution(This is not an exhaustive list)

1.

Social Inclusion

(Resulting in better working condition for sanitation workers and waste pickers)
  • Social innovations for improved waste collection and management in low-income settlements
  • Low-cost efficient mechanical solutions for cleaning septic tanks and sewer lines (Manhole to machine hole)
  • Efficient operation and maintenance of community and public toilets in a hygienic and sustainable manner
  • Safe containment, evacuation, transportation, processing and disposal of used water and fecal sludge & septage

2.

Zero Dump
  • Innovative solutions for tracking segregated door-to-door collection solid waste
  • Processing and recycling of all segregated fractions of Solid Waste
  • Low-cost portable solution for remediation of legacy dumpsites

3

Plastic Waste Management
  • Solution of processing and recycling of plastic waste
  • Solutions to minimize degradation of plastic during recycling
  • Plastic waste management in eco-sensitive regions
  • Innovative methods for collection of multi-layered plastic and its disposal
  • Technology for disposal of plastic from legacy dumpsites
  • Alternatives of single use plastic.
4.

Transparency
  • Digital solutions to check the overflow of septic tanks and sewer lines
  • Citizen engagement including awareness creation and capacity building
  • IoT based solutions for real time monitoring of operations of Sanitation and
  • Waste Management Infrastructure