MIT prize for harvesting the rain and sowing health in India

Harvesting rainwater sounds like a magical solution for areas suffering from seasonal droughts. But turning it into a reality for thousands of villagers in India, using networks of pipes to capture rainwater from hundreds of small roofs and feed it to underground reservoirs, is hardly a simple undertaking.

After a career in corporate innovation for major companies, B.P. Agrawal put his technical and business prowess to work to transform such ideas into practical solutions that have helped tens of thousands of people in his homeland.

That's why the Massachusetts Institute of Technology today awarded Agrawal the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability. The prize honors inventors whose work helps poor communities meet basic health needs and earn a sustainable livelihood.

Agrawal won the award for two such breakthroughs: his rainfall-harvesting project, and another innovative system of mobile health kiosks that allow nurses to serve poor communities that don't have doctors, using electronic protocols to treat common ailments.

More information is available on the website of the organization Agrawal founded in 2007, called Sustainable Innovations.

Here are excepts from MIT's description of the innovations:

Agrawal transitioned from the corporate world to the non-profit world in 2003; in 2006, his rainwater harvesting system, Aakash Ganga, or River from Sky, won a World Bank Development Marketplace Award for an innovative approach to development challenges surrounding clean water in India. Aakash Ganga collects water from rooftops which is channeled through pipes and stored in a network of underground reservoirs, providing enough water for an entire village for a year. To date, it has helped 10,000 villagers in drought-prone regions gain access to clean water. Aakash Ganga is now being considered for large-scale implementation by the government of India. These accomplishments led Agrawal to found Sustainable Innovations (SI) in 2007. SI is a non-profit dedicated to building self-sustainable enterprises, with a focus on engaging young entrepreneurs in culturally and economically viable ventures.

Another award-winning development is Agrawal’s kiosk-based health “clinics,” Arogya Ghar, or Clinics for Mass Care, created with entrepreneur Atul Jain, founder and CEO of TEOCO, which won a second World Bank Development Marketplace Award in 2007. The clinics, run by high school educated young women, are inexpensive and have the ability to alleviate the shortage of trained medical staff and improve standardized treatment protocols for common ailments and preventable diseases in India. Agrawal’s team is currently seeking collaboration with USAID, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and social investors to scale up to 50 villages by 2012.