A Technological Solution for Sanitation – Solinas Integrity Private Limited

Team WinFoundation Sep 16, 2023 0 Comment Water Conservation

Founders: Mr. Divanshu Kumar – CEO, Innovator of HomoSEP, Bhavesh Narayani – Product Head

Hearing in the news about the deaths of sanitary workers, now and then, has become a common affair today; Most often, the death due to suffocation or intoxication inside the sewers/septic tanks while cleaning it is seen as a workplace hazard and probably thought to be acceptable as well, but is that the case?

What is the reason behind these deaths? Is this because there is no better technological solution available, or is it social discrimination/social hierarchy or maybe just sheer negligence from our side who don’t care enough to protect our own people? Let’s understand this deeper with an example. Ramesh needs to clean his house’s septic tank. He calls for a local sucker lorries that are the possible solutions but still, his problem was not solved as the sludge has been deposited and has become quite hard. Now, what will Ramesh do? Ask someone to clean it manually. Who will he call? And what will they do?

For all these questions, let’s take a look at where it all started. (i) Manual scavenging is practised mainly in India for “manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of, or otherwise handling, human excreta in an insanitary latrine or an open drain or sewer or a septic tank or a pit”.

During British rule, they started installing public toilets, and they hired people to clean those toilets. Earlier, it was an act of discrimination against the so-called low caste people, it turned out to be their profession. And eventually, it turned out to be their only way of income, and it has put a social tag. This forced them to clean or manually work in the sewer or septic lines. As things evolved, our sanitation systems also upgraded from septic tanks to sewer networks or toilets to bio-toilets and smart toilets; but the cleaning method stayed the same. In fact, it has become even worse. Earlier it was cleaning or handling the poop, but now they have started to inhale the toxic gases from the hard accumulated sludge. This affects their health causing breathing issues, skin rashes and so on, also reducing their life span by almost half. This is a difficult problem at hand, a culmination of strong social discrimination and lack of readily available technologies.

2018 was a time when Divanshu was pursuing his final year of undergrad studies at IITM under Prof Prabhu Rajagopal. Initially the technology aspect of the problem gave them a push to look for a solution, however once he visited and saw the cleaning of septic tanks being done manually, his resolve to solve the problem became much stronger. This is when the duo at IIT Madras tried to solve this with both technological as well as social lens.

After seeing it through their own eyes, it keeps pestering their minds to solve this. As engineers, they wanted a technology that solves these problems or at least makes them stay out of this toxic environment or manual handling. The inputs from Safai Karamchari andolan helped understand the on ground issues and the feasibility of various solutions proposed. After good research, the realisation came that more than 70% of households are connected with septic tanks, and there is no existing technology to prevent human entry into them. That’s where the focus area started, zeroing in on septic tanks. To understand it better, septic tanks are closed spaces as big as the living rooms of our apartments which has about half of it filled it hard, pressurized coagulated sludge. To desludge them, humans enter septic tanks. Sanitary workers will enter the septic tanks and use hard tools to break the rock-hard sludge without any safety measures. The smell of the fecal sludge is so strong that before every cleaning, they drink alcohol to tolerate the toxic environment. It makes them addicted to this practice, and even this contributes to their ill health.

Their research over the last 3 years led them to invent HomoSEP (which later became a part of the start-up, Solinas, founded by both of them), a multi blade inverter umbrella system which enters the manhole fully closed and opens its arms once it enters inside the septic tank. The mechanism consists of sharp blades that homogenise all the contents like slabs, hard rocks, and accumulated sludge inside the tanks & further mixes them with the colloidal water to form a liquid solution. This is then pumped out using the suction pump and stored in the tank attached to the HomoSEP itself.

HomoSEP consists of four main modules, 1. Bottom Module 2. Suction module with a storage tank 3. User-Friendly Control Module 4. A feeder with an actuator that goes 3-5mts deep. Each module helps the sanitary workers to clean the septic tanks more efficiently and in a safe manner. Sanitary workers from urban or rural areas have a major problem cleaning or transporting the sludge. Hence, keeping accessibility & portability in mind, Bhavesh & his technical team at Solinas have built a model which integrates with the existing vehicle like tractors, small trucks or even two-wheelers within the HomoSEP system.

Currently, Solinas has 3 models,

HomoSEP “Ind” – for higher performances or industries.
HomoSEP “Compact” – For housing boards or any confined spaces.
HomoSEP “Mini”- Attached with a bike/on auto and specifically cleaning the standalone septic tanks in villages.

Further, the team has also done a business innovation and designed a distribution model to directly benefit the sanitary workers and empower them. The organisation not only distributes the robot to them, but also helps the sanitary workers to position their robot in the existing market and earn money by finding them customers.

So far, Solinas, in partnership with IIT Madras and various CSR institutions like NSE foundation, LTTS have distributed 3 robots. They are constantly working with them to create various business opportunities for cleaning or identifying local contractors to partner with them. Also, several municipalities & non-profits are interested in deploying the robot in their city and helping the sanitary workers. The team is looking for more partners who can help them reach out to sanitary workers across the country and implement the solution.

Every problem has a solution until we figure it out. Manual scavenging is a problem connected with people’s dignity and social identity. Through the Micro Entrepreneurship model, we can hope to have created a social identity for the sanitary workers and their families, along with improving their family income.

Some recipients of the system, who have started enterprise for septic tank cleaning:

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