Mysuru:  The National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysuru, Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) and National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), New Delhi have jointly established the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Innovation Lab at NIE under Innovation Hub for Urban Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Solutions in India (IHUWASH) supported by United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Under this initiative, a consultation workshop for WASH Forum was held yesterday at Sarvepalli Radhakrishna Hall at NIE. The main aim of the WASH Forum is to create a platform to meet, discuss, share and resolve WASH issues of the city without any bias and act as an independent advisory support to the MCC.

The WASH Forum will be a network of representatives from government, academia, private sector, industries, entrepreneurs, civic societies and also general public who wish to contribute in improving the WASH-related issues of Mysuru city innovatively.

The guests of the programme were G.R. Suresh, Deputy Commissioner (development), MCC, Dr. D.G. Nagaraju, Health Officer, MCC, Anand Rudra, Senior Advisor WASH, USAID, Dr. G. Ravi, Principal, NIE, T.K. Chittaranjan, Director, NIE and S. Shamsundar, Wash Chair, NIE-CREST (Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies), Mysuru.

The programme began with the screening on IHUWASH project video. Shamsundar welcomed the gathering and set the context and Dr. G Ravi spoke about the collaboration of NIE with MCC and NIUA in the WASH sector. Chittaranjan highlighted the work done by the NIE-CREST in the field of Renewable Energy which includes rainwater, solar energy and solid waste management projects.

Anand Rudra emphasised that WASH Forum activities should contribute for the WASH sector of Mysuru and it should be a sustainable activity. Kamana Swamy and Dr. Uday Bhonde, National Institute of Urban Affairs, presented IHUWASH project progress and plans.