Kochi: All Bijisha needs to do to supply purified drinking water anywhere in her locality is to click a button on her mobile phone. Her incredible salt water purifying plant has won Bijisha many accolades. Her project won the first prize in the water conservation category of the Atal Marathon conducted jointly by the NITI AYOG and the Better India Atal Innovation Mission. Bijisha’s plant is smaller and cheaper than the existing salt water purifying plants. It helped her project win big in the national level competition. Interestingly, hers is the only project from Kerala that had won a prize in this event.

Kadamakudy panchayat president Shalini Babu said that they are ready to try Bijisha’s invention in the panchayat if the government gives the approval.

Unique project

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Bijisha who took part in the competition representing the Cardinal School in Thrikkakara is now a first year BSc Chemistry student at Bharat Mata College. Around 1700 schools from across the country had competed in the Atal Marathon through video presentations. 50 schools were selected to the final round. Four teams from Kerala that reached the finals were trained at the technology incubation center in Kollam by the NITI AYOG. The projects which won the first prizes in 8 categories were presented at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in front of the President and other invited guests.

Experiment at Kadamakudy

Bijisha’s invention is actually a continuation of a minor project that she did when she was studying in class 8. She was guided by Jaison M Joy, a professor at the Bharat Mata College. The first step was to make a polymeric reverse osmosis membrane for purifying the salt water. Around 200 liters of water could be purified in an hour using this device. A small working model of the project was made to try out its feasibility and efficiency by purifying salt water at the Kadamakudy panchayat. Bijisha has now applied for a provisional patent for her invention.

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Cheaper

Around Rs 25000 was spent to make the plant which purifies 200 liters of salt water in 1 hour. Bijisha says that a larger plant that can purify up to 1000 liters salt water in 1 hour could be made for Rs 22 lakh. When salt water is purified, the minerals in it are lost. So, the required minerals are separately added in the purified drinking water.

Digital

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The plant could be operated with the help of just a mobile phone. You will get warnings and notifications on the phone if the plant suddenly stops working or if grime gets deposited in the filters. It could then be rectified through a back wash or a membrane clean up.

Bijisha is the daughter of Bijo and Jisha who are both natives of Ambadimoola in Kakkanad. 

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