CHARLESTON, S.C., February 13, 2024— In late October, the Global Water Center (GWC) was awarded a grant of $349,939 from The Coca-Cola Foundation to help the Solar Pumping Technical Assistance program in Karnataka, India. The undertaking will prepare roughly 300 to 500 authorities engineers and consultants from the Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation Department (RDWSD) of Karnataka, India, within the sustainable design and administration of Solar-Powered Water Systems (SPWS).

“Thanks to the generosity of The Coca-Cola Foundation, this training project will provide the government engineers the knowledge base they need to evaluate and design Solar Powered Pumping Systems that can be a viable option for providing the population of Karnataka with safe water,” stated Dr. George Greene III, Executive Chairman of the Global Water Center. “The individuals participating in the training will be well-equipped to select appropriate locations for SPWS, and to design systems that comply with international design and performance standards. The individuals will also be connected to industry and partners who can provide ongoing support for successful SPWS implementation. We look forward to helping the government engineers obtain the knowledge and skills needed to provide the people of Karnataka sustainable access to safe water.”

Currently, 16.4 million individuals in Karnataka’s rural inhabitants nonetheless lack entry to a secure and dependable family faucet connection. The funding will likely be used to assist the sixth largest state in India have secure and dependable water by offering coaching and ongoing technical help in SPWS to the state’s authorities, which has been working aggressively to enhance entry to secure water and sanitation. In addition to SPWS, the coaching will embody a concentrate on groundwater administration to emphasise the significance of designing programs that don’t deplete this useful resource.

Typical rural water schemes in Karnataka, powered by electrical energy, present customers with water for 4-12 hours per day. The use of SPWS will help the objective of 24/7 steady water provide, as it would complement, and at instances substitute, the unreliable entry to electrical energy from the grid. This can have a number of constructive impacts, together with a discount in microbial contamination related to water storage on the level of use, and a corresponding lower in water-borne ailments related to the water provide. Additionally, the transfer towards SPWS will contribute to the discount of greenhouse fuel emissions (GHGs) in Karnataka. According to the World Bank, GHGs related to the power utilization by water pumps is estimated at 35,531 tons of CO2 yearly. SPWS will scale back the reliance on electrical energy from the grid and enhance programs’ monetary sustainability, which is in danger as a result of excessive value of electrical energy related to water provision and the ensuing improve within the variety of electrical payments that aren’t paid. Investment in SPWS will scale back, and in some cases eradicate the prices related to electrical energy.

At Global Water Center, we acknowledge firsthand the necessity for two.2 billion individuals to entry clear water. We consider The Coca-Cola Foundation’s grant will enormously support Karnataka and speed up the top of water poverty.