GITAM Students Develop Smart Water-Recycling System to Address Urban Water Crisis

Inspired by the devastating Chennai water crisis of 2019, six science and engineering students from Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (GITAM) have designed an innovative smart water-recycling system for kitchen sinks to tackle growing water scarcity in Indian cities.

The eco-friendly system, named Hydro Gravitricity, has already earned national recognition by winning first prize at the Business Plan Contest during Tirutsava, the annual techno-cultural festival of IIT Tirupati. The winning team will now represent India at the International Water Congress in Denmark in May 2022.

The student innovators include Anik Panja, Prithvi Tripathy, Sai Sasikanth Rokkam, Jeswin GN, Shivani Narsina, who are pursuing BTech at GITAM’s Visakhapatnam campus, along with Rushali Mishra, a second-year BSc Environmental Science student.

The project was mentored by GITAM Venture Development Centre (VDC) coaches Vikas Kumar Srivastav and Bollem Raja Kumar, with support from the university’s leadership team that helped transform the concept into a working prototype.

Inspired by Chennai’s Water Crisis

The idea for the smart greywater recycling system was born during the severe Chennai water crisis, when acute water shortages disrupted daily life for millions.

According to mentor Vikas Kumar Srivastav, the students were part of the core technical team of GITAM’s IEEE student branch in 2019 and were tasked with creating an innovative water conservation project.

“The Chennai water crisis became the key catalyst for the team to work on recycling kitchen sink wastewater after dishwashing. It took nearly two and a half years of design, testing and multiple iterations to reach the prototype stage,” he said.

How Hydro Gravitricity Works

Hydro Gravitricity is a smart greywater filtration system designed to recycle dark greywater generated from kitchen sinks after dishwashing.

The self-maintaining system uses multiple stages of purification, including:

• Sedimentation tanks
• Grease traps
• Advanced filtration membranes
• Sand filters
• Charcoal filters

These components effectively remove impurities and clean the wastewater for reuse.

Built-in smart sensors provide real-time monitoring of water quality, measuring parameters such as:

• pH levels
• Turbidity
• Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)
• Water volume

The filtered water can then be reused for:

• Irrigation
• Cleaning
• Toilet flushing

This significantly reduces freshwater consumption in households.

Smart, Retrofittable and User-Friendly

One of the system’s most innovative features is its plug-and-play design, which allows users to retrofit it into existing kitchen pipelines without making major structural modifications.

Student team leader Anik Panja said the team designed the system to be smart, self-maintaining and hassle-free.

“We integrated multiple sensors that enable the system to automatically adjust maintenance cycles and generate live reports for users to monitor water usage and output quality,” he said.

This makes the system practical for modern urban households seeking efficient water conservation solutions.

Scalable from Homes to Industry

GITAM provided the students with funding and dedicated space to build, test and refine the prototype.

The team is currently working with water-testing laboratories across India to validate their research findings and further strengthen the system’s commercial viability.

A Step Towards Sustainable Urban Water Management

With India facing increasing water stress, innovations like Hydro Gravitricity offer a practical and sustainable path forward.

By combining smart technology, water recycling and environmental engineering, the GITAM students have created a solution that could help Indian cities reduce water wastage and build resilience against future water crises.