In observance of President's Day, we are closed on Monday, February 19, 2024.

Tharun Kumar, a Bangalore resident found a creative solution to the wastewater dumping problem by developing treatment plants based on cow’s digestive system.

The wastewater dumping issue is a major sanitation issue in many countries, especially in third-world countries. Studies suggest that about 80% of the world’s wastewater gets dumped untreated.

For example, wastewater dumping issue is quite severe in Bangalore, India. Here, a large quantity of wastewater gets dumped in the lakes.

Modern sewage plants are quite expensive to run and poorer countries find it hard to spend that much money.

Tharun Kumar, a Bangalore resident found a creative solution to this nasty problem. He sought out help from Biomimicry Institute and developed a wastewater treatment plant based on the digestive system of cows.

statement
Rediscovering Nature’s Genius in treating Sewage - the cow’s stomach. Our unique patented technology treats sewage in a decentralised, self- sustainable way in underground chambers without power, chemicals or human intervention. Using Biomimicry, regenerative innovation inspired by nature, the ECOSTP utilises functional principles and strategies of microorganisms and ecosystem found in a cow’s stomach.

ECOSTP addresses six UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and is selected as a Best Practice case study for United Nations ESCAP SDG Sustainability Asia Pac report.

The modern treatment plants have a certain type of bacteria that breaks down the waste with the help of bacteria. But these bacteria need oxygen to survive too. That’s why the treatment plants need expensive blower motors.

Cows’ digestive system contains a similar bacteria chamber and they don’t need oxygen to survive.

Kumar’s idea was to design a new kind of sewage system that follows the same design principle. Plus, this sewage system doesn’t even need electrical power as the wastewater gets feed through the chamber with the help of gravity.

So far, Kumar’s company ECOSTP has built 50 sustainable sewage plants in different parts of India and plans to build more in Africa too.

Samira is an Electronics and Communications Engineer by profession, but deep inside, her heart is a nomad! She's a state champion debater, a public speaker, a scriptwriter, a theater actress, but most importantly — A GREEN CITIZEN! She thinks of herself as a storyteller who thrives on enjoying the life at fullest and telling everyone the tales of life.

Subscribe to
our newsletter