*Food, energy, water, and sanitation are the significant factors necessary for the social and economic well-being and prosperity of people, particularly to accelerate rural development. In order to attain sustainable development in off-grid villages, the issues associated with Food-Energy-Water (FEW) nexus must be addressed with respect to social, economic and environmental aspects. SunMoksha, a socio-technical enterprise, has proposed a model that includes smart technical solutions or intelligent assets, such as, Smart AQUAnet^TM^, Smart Nanogrid^TM^, Smart MEZ^TM^, etc., addressing food, energy and water needs in off-grid villages. Its development model allows for multiple sustainable solutions to be introduced into the rural community, to address specific needs as the community moves up in the development process.*

*In this paper, an approach is presented to identify such sustainable smart solutions. The approach uses dilemma triangle and Go/No-Go analysis to address water, energy and sanitation needs in off-grid Indian villages. We demonstrate the efficacy of the approach by first identifying the key issues in an Indian off-grid village from the perspective of FEW nexus and sanitation using the dilemma triangle construct. Further, a Go/No-Go analysis is used to select the best feasible solution from a set of possible solutions addressing the dilemmas and issues. The approach is generic and will support stakeholders/decision-makers in identifying and selecting the best suitable solution from a set of potential solutions. The approach is illustrated for an off-grid village to identify an intelligent asset to simultaneously address the water, energy and sanitation needs.*

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Identifying Sustainable Solutions for Sanitation, Energy, and Water Needs in Off-Grid Indian Villages

Division / Sponsors: 
Design Engineering Division and Computers & Information In Engineering Division


Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IDETC-CIE/IDETC-CIE2020/volume/83907

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