Identifying sustainable solutions for sanitation, energy, and water needs in off-grid indian villages

Food, energy, and water 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 the 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 AQUAnetTM, Smart NanogridTM, Smart MEZTM, 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, a method is presented to identify such sustainable smart solutions. The method involves the use of the dilemma triangle and Go/No-Go analysis to address the needs in off-grid Indian villages. We demonstrate the efficacy of the method by first identifying the key issues in an Indian off-grid village from the perspective of the FEW nexus using the dilemma triangle construct. A Go/No-Go analysis is used to select the best feasible solution from a set of possible solutions addressing the dilemmas and issues. Additionally, the needs for sanitation in the village is also considered in the analysis, keeping in mind the health and well-beings of the communities. The method is generic and will support stakeholders/decision-makers in identifying and selecting the best suitable solution from a set of potential solutions. The method is illustrated for an off-grid village to identify an intelligent asset to simultaneously address the sanitation, energy and water needs.