Our ingenious solutions fetch big results and recognition.
Big change starts small. Our ingenious solutions have helped thousands of people around the world change their lives. Practical Action’s innovative approach has won us a number of prestigious awards inspiring others to replicate projects and scale them up for wider impact.
Turning sandbars into swathes of greenery
In Bangladesh, our innovative approach of growing pumpkins, squash and other high value crops on riverbanks has turned thousands of hectares of ‘mini deserts’ into swathes of greenery.
Surrounded by more than 200 rivers, Bangladesh gets flooded every year. The floods destroy farmland and displace thousands of people. However, after the rainy season, the rivers recede and thousands of hectares of sandbars appear. Our clever solution takes advantage of these fertile lands and helps poor farmers grow crops increasing their income and improving their standard of living.
This year, we were awarded the UNIDO ITPO International Award for our sandbar cropping project. The award recognises innovative ideas and technologies in agribusiness that could lead to social, environmental and economic improvements if implemented in developing countries and is awarded by UNIDO ITPO Italy, in collaboration with the Future Food Institute.
Treating faecal sludge, making cities cleaner
A faecal sludge treatment plant (FSTP), we helped install in Dhenkanal Municipality of Odisha, India, has treated 600 truckloads of faecal sludge in just six months. The plant treats 27,000 litres of faecal sludge in a day.
Most urban households in Odisha have latrines connected to septic tanks and pit latrines but lack a treatment facility for faecal sludge. The unique faecal sludge management (FSM) model created by Practical Action led to the Dhenkanal Municipal Council being honoured as the ‘Pioneer in Faecal Sludge and Septage Management’ by the Government of India in February.
Lighting up the households, bringing communities together
A hydropower plant that Practical Action helped install in Rwanda has brought renewable energy and jobs to thousands of people. The Rubagabaga Hydropower Project is a 445 kW grid-connected, run-of-the-river project located in the Northern Province of Rwanda.
Our partner Rubagabaga Hydropower Limited won this year’s African Power Energy Water Awards 2019 in the small-scale sustainable energy project category. This innovative public-private-community partnership project has not only added power to the grid and created more than 1000 jobs, but also brought together the community by lighting up its industrial park, community library and agricultural centre of excellence.