Friday, May 31, 2019

Day 11: Getting down to business

Being two weeks into our three week trip inBangalore, our groups have begun to focus on our separate projects: agriculture and food, energy, and water and sanitation. Today was dedicated to student work time and we all went our separate ways.
Being two weeks into our three week trip inBangalore, our groups have begun to focus on our separate projects: agriculture and food, energy, and water and sanitation. Today was dedicated to student work time and we all went our separate ways.

Water and Sanitation Team: The day began bright and early at 7:40 a.m. as we headed to Kaikondrahalli Lake to interview some of the key stakeholders of our issue. The lake recently had been restored, but due to the urbanization around the lake sewage water runoff has caused eutrophication, choking out the life in the lake.

We interviewed a teacher from a school located along the lake, a manager of fisherman along with one of his employees, a local resident, and a group of boys that live in the slum bordering the lake. We found that most people agreed that the sewage water entering the lake was a problem. We also walked around the lake, taking pictures of our observations of algae blooms and waste water inlets. The rest of the afternoon was spent putting the information together as we get closer to the presentation day.



Energy Team: The energy team began by going down to MG Road to talk to shops about their air conditioning units and then transitioned to ask them about their homes. It was interesting to find a lot of the people the team spoke to said they felt air conditioning was unnecessary, and even though they could afford it, choose not to have it in their homes.

After lunch, they visited the ILK office to see and experiment with their evaporative cooler. Once they finished there, they went to an electronics store to pretend to be shopping for an air conditioner to see what the sales team’s selling points would be. To finish their project work for the day, they created a survey about residential cooling that they will be sending out to friends in Bangalore.




Food and Agriculture Team: The team started their day early as well with some phone interviews. After that, they headed out into town, and found a wedding to attend! They were interested in learning about low-zero waste weddings, and while they were looking for the catering team they were welcomed and offered to eat as much as they wanted.

While there, they had the opportunity to ask a few people about their weddings.The food at the wedding was served on banana leaves so they found a good opportunity to incorporate composting into these events to reduce waste. The afternoon was spent with more interviews with more to follow Friday.



After a day filled with talking to people and working on our projects, we all came together for dinner at ShakesBierre. We enjoyed sharing food, having conversations, and a little bit of karaoke!

--
Mia K.