Mysuru:  National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) and National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), New Delhi, have jointly established the WASH Innovation Lab at NIE.

Under this initiative, in consultation with MCC, creation of a WASH Forum has been proposed by NIUA. To understand the viewpoint of all relevant stakeholders on the Forum, a consultation workshop will be held on Feb. 20 at Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Hall, NIE, between 9.30 am and 2 pm.

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 water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) related issues of Mysuru city innovatively.

The WASH Forum will strengthen the activities planned under the Wash Lab and will be its extended arm. Therefore, 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.

Mayor Pushpalatha Jagannath, Deputy Mayor Shafi Ahmed, MCC Commissioner Shilpa Nag, MCC Deputy Commissioner (Development) G.R. Suresh, Health Officer Dr. D.G. Nagaraju and Senior WASH Specialist from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Anand Rudra will be the guests of honour.

USAID is funding IHUWASH project, which is being implemented by NIUA.

To initiate the dialogue on WASH Forum, a panel discussion has been planned. S. Shamsundar, WASH Chair, WASH Lab, NIE, Dr. D.G. Nagaraju, Health Officer, Dr. G.S. Suresh, Dean, NIE, Prof. Prakash Nair, Organisational Behaviour & HRM, MYRA School Business, B. Basavaraju, Executive Director, GRAAM (Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement), Shriram, Member, BAI, Mysuru, will be the panellists.