RELX Environmental Challenge 2020: seven shortlisted projects to bring safe water and sanitation to communities around the world
In this, the tenth anniversary year of the RELX Environmental Challenge, there were a record 170 applications from 43 countries.
The RELX Environmental Challenge 2020 shortlist features seven innovative projects that provide sustainable access to safe water and improved sanitation. The first prize winner will receive $50,000 with $25,000 for second place. Winners will be announced on 24 August 2020 at a free, virtual special event: SDG 6: From here to there - celebrating 10 years of innovation and exploring the next decade of WASH action (register through link)
To help them advance their work, all shortlisted candidates will receive one year’s access to RELX environmental content, including the premier sector journal, Water Research, through Science Direct, the world's leading source for scientific, technical, and medical research.
The RELX Environmental Challenge prioritises replicable, scalable, sustainable and innovative solutions. They must also have practical applicability and involve local communities and other key stakeholders.
The 2020 RELX Environmental Challenge shortlisted projects are:
OmniVis
A handheld platform created by OmniVis to detect cholera causing bacteria in environmental water samples in under 30 minutes, anywhere in the world; after detection, the data is immediately uploaded to a cloud-based server; automating the data logging process and enabling organisations to observe outbreaks in near real-time.
Maithri Aquatech
A “Water from Air kiosk” and Knowledge Centre by India based, social enterprise Maithri Aquatech will supply potable water to under-served communities in the water-stressed city of Visakhapatnam through its Atmospheric Water Generator technology.
OmniFlo Floating Green Filters
Floating filtration systems of specially-bred macrophyte plants that inject oxygen into wastewater increasing the concentration of dissolved oxygen and providing wastewater treatment without the use of energy or chemicals.
DECANTRA
A mobile de-watering vehicle that collects sewage from septic systems in rural areas, allowing the thickening of collected solids onsite and the return of excess water following filtration and disinfection. The aim is to offer a complete collection and treatment process that is cost efficient, technically sound and applicable to developing countries.
Blue Tap
Technology to automatically inject chlorine at an appropriate dose into household-level water systems in areas where there may be access to water services but the water may be unsafe due to harmful pathogens. It uses no electricity, has no moving parts and can be easily inserted into a pipe network. An injection valve controls the chlorine flow rate, meaning just the right amount of chlorine needed to purify the water.
BubbleBox
A mobile and autonomous hygiene module accessible to migrants, refugees, and homeless people. Its compact, efficient, and resilient structure allows it to function with or without being connected to the public water or electricity delivery grids, providing emergency hygiene services to vulnerable people while helping to restore their dignity.
AKYAS
Personal single-use biodegradable toilet with a sanitizer kit designed to provide maximum hygiene with minimum materials to serve displaced populations. The core technology is a lab-proven pathogen-killing powder that is composed of naturally-occurring substances.
The RELX Environmental Challenge advances United Nations Sustainable Goal (SDG) 6: Clean water and sanitation for all, one of the 17 SDGs featured on the free RELX SDG Resource Centre, which aims to illuminate the SDGs for everyone.
Enquiries
Mirième Hill
[email protected]
Notes to Editors
About RELX Environmental Challenge
The RELX Environmental Challenge was launched in 2011 and is awarded to projects that best demonstrate how they can provide sustainable access to safe water where it is presently at risk and/or access to improved sanitation. Projects must have clear practical applicability, address identified need, and advance related issues such as health, education, or human rights. According to the World Health Organisation and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme 2017 report, some 3 in 10 people worldwide, or 2.1 billion, lack access to safe, readily available water at home, and 6 in 10, or 4.5 billion, lack safely managed sanitation. Poor access to safe water and sanitation contributes to health crises in many developing countries, and increasingly leads to violent conflict.
About RELX
RELX is a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. The Group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs over 33,000 people, of whom almost half are in North America. The shares of RELX PLC, the parent company, are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX. The total market capitalisation is approximately £31.8bn, €35.2bn, $41.4bn.
About the RELX SDG Resource Centre
The free RELX SDG Resource Centre features leading-edge articles, reports, tools, events, videos and legal practical guidance from across RELX and key United Nations and other partners, to advance awareness, understanding and implementation of the 17 SDGs which aim to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all people by 2030. The SDG News Tracker on the homepage provides up-to-the minute news about the SDGs from around the world, searching millions of articles published daily across more than 75,000 news sources including in the six UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Russian), as well as German. See original research including the RELX SDG Graphics looking at the state of knowledge underpinning the SDGs, as well as tools and podcasts, including The SDG Impact of COVID-19 featuring the view of a range of thought leaders across a range of disciplines.