Gonga SkimBike - Economical, Eco-friendly Device to Remove Trash from Water

Polluted water bodies in Ahmedabad, India may have found an answer in a device developed by a National Institute of Design (NID) student that helps remove trash from the water.

Using waste material, Gonga Naveen Kumar has designed a contraption that does not require fuel to function, making it an economical and eco-friendly way to clear garbage from water bodies.

The machine designed by Gonga Naveen Kumar is 11.5ft long and 3.5ft wide.
This enables users to steer it easily in a lake.
Image source: Ahmedabad Mirror

What makes the device interesting is that empty oil cans, cycle waste, plastic and wooden sheet have been used to create it. The 24-year-old second year student of Product Design has named it a Gonga SkimBike. “There are machines to clean rivers. They are huge and run on diesel. The size will not allow them to operate in lakes and machines that run on fuel will ultimately harm the environment.

Our brief for the project was circular economy and so I focused on using recycled material. For example, I have utilised oil cans found in the kitchen in a manner that the machine can float on water effortlessly and safely,” said Gonga. He has used bicycle parts. This has brought down the cost of the machine to Rs 30,000 as against the current machines whose cost may run into crores.

“We tested this machine in Ghuma Lake recently. It not only floats with balance, it removes garbage from the surface. Ide struck me when I read that millions of fishes die because of plastic in water. The plastic in water body is affecting our foodchain as well when people consume fish. Ultimately, plastic in water body is affecting us all negatively and so it is important to come up with a machine that is not only cost-effective, easy to operate but can also be used in cleaning a smaller water body for instance a lake,” he said.

Read full article: Ahmedabad Mirror
 

Media

Taxonomy

• Technology
• Contaminant Removal
• Pollution
• Contaminant Movement Mapping
• Water Pollution Control
• Pollution
• India

3 Comments

1. Hello

   The pollution of natural surface hydraulic media comes from a part of suspended solids and dissolved liquid pollution.

   Some of the suspended material will be dissolved in the liquid element. This dissolved pollution can be of the order of organic, bio-chemical, chemical.

   Removing with an ingenious idea the suspended material does not solve the problem of purification of these surface waters or their purification. This proposal is still part of the ideas of artificial intelligence that makes the miracle believe, an innovation. 

   If it were so easy the natural hydrauliauques Mlilieux would not contain as much pollution. 

   The first action to be taken is to remove the origin of the pollution. This one will be baucoup more efficient.

2. Pollution and trash are different things and require quite different solutions.

3. Very innovative idea but needs commercialisation with new, consistent quality and durable parts for consistency in performance. Using recycled parts in commercial production will have several limitations. Some of these are - Availability of such parts on continuous, timely and cost effective manner; How to check the quality of used parts and their life expectancy which in turn would reflect on warranty issues even for mandatory period of one year; Increased cost of such quality checking of such recycled parts. Some standards also have to be decided and followed on parts used for, not only the safety of personnel using the machine in lakes and other water bodies, but also to ensure long operating life of 5 to 10 years.