A local water solutions provider – which has made a mark on dozens of villages in India, Indonesia and Hong Kong by bringing them clean drinking water and sanitation – has won an international award.
Ecosoftt is the first Singapore organisation to receive the Zayed Sustainability Prize, which is awarded by the United Arab Emirates in recognition of innovative and sustainable solutions in health, food, energy and water which benefit communities in developing countries.
Founded in 2012, the social enterprise embarked on one of its first overseas projects just two years later in Madhya Pradesh, a state in central India.
The Narmada River supports the water needs of around 75 million people in the state, from agriculture to drinking.
During festive periods, two to three million Hindu devotees from across the country flock to the water to complete religious rituals.
To clean up the waterway, engineers at Ecosoftt’s Madhya Pradesh branch installed water reclamation systems in the drain network. Four years later, the river water reached potable quality and was safe to drink.
Using technologies such as rainwater harvesting, drinking water treatment and solid waste management, the organisation has reached out to villages to help them meet their clean water needs.
In January, the organisation received the award in the water category, winning US$600,000 (S$821,000) in funding.
Ecosoftt plans to use the prize money to scale up its business around the world.
The organisation has also been working with national water agency PUB to ramp up the efficiency of water use here in Singapore, such as the instalment of a treatment system at the ground floor of a building in 2015.
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Source: The Straits Times, 16 May 2019