Marine pollution never concerned 12-year-old Haaziq Kazi until he began watching documentaries on water bodies. Accumulation of plastic waste and deteriorating marine life impacted Haaziq so much that he decided to devise a solution. The result was Ervis, a ship that collects plastic dumped in oceans.
Haaziq Kazi | Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini
“It was overwhelming to watch how man-made plastic waste affects the fish. Their stomachs are stuffed with plastic which they cannot digest and they eventually die,” said the Standard VII student of Indus International School in Pune. Another 12-year-old, Gitanjali Rao from Denver, Colorado, has invented Tethys, a low-cost device to detect lead contamination in water. Gitanjali, who visits her grandparents in India once a year, never understood why they would boil drinking water every time before consumption. That got her started on reading about water contamination in various parts of the world and its harmful effects.
Both Gitanjali and Haaziq will speak about their innovations at the 10th Edition of TEDx Gateway in the city on Sunday. Gitanjali said, “When I found out how lead contamination in water was a big problem globally, I decided to do something about it.” Her device can test water samples and send status alerts to people promptly.
Young green warriors: Gitanjali Rao from Colorado (left) and Haaziq Kazi from Pune are just 12 years old. | Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini
Named after Titan, the Greek goddess of fresh water and nursing, Tethys works in sync with an application. She said, “The two have to be linked. The application picks up the status of the water through the device. It uploads the time and location of the person and highlights information with the status of the water on a map. This is to help people understand the level of contamination of water and ensure their safety and health.” She is in the last leg of fine-tuning the app.
Haaziq is hoping Ervis will be ready within three to six months after which he will focus on getting funds. He said, “Ervis is a large boat with compartments, and saucers surrounding it. These saucers will have a central outlet which will swallow the waste. The outlet will be connected to chambers inside the boat. Once the waste enters the tube, the samples of the waste will be analysed, and segregated to plastic and non-plastic items. The plastic will be compacted and stored in cubes. The other waste will be decomposed with bacteria and stored for disposal.”