Today 95 million Swachh Bharat Mission Toilets across the country (mostly single leach pits and septic tanks) are awaiting means to be emptied safely. As per the census reports, about 38% of urban households have septic tanks. This amounts to close to 30 million 28.5 million urban septic tanks/leach pits which need emptying every few years.[1] Manual Scavenging, a The degrading and dangerous process of emptying septic tanks and pits manually, referred to as hazardous cleaning in the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers Act (PEMSRA 2013) that leads to various fatal diseases is still practiced practised in urban areas and remote locations. locations that are remote or have narrow access. The vacuum trucks cannot reach these narrow lanes or remote locations for emptyingto empty the septic tanks and sewer maintenance holes. manholes. Since the existing equipment used for emptying septic tanks and sewer maintenance manholes are large and expensive, the sanitation worker has no alternative but to handle the sanitary sludge with buckets, shovels, or baskets.

Jalodbust™ is a portable, battery-operated, safe, and easy to operateeasy-to-operate sludge handling system undergoing design iteration tests, trial runs and pilots. . It works on rechargeable batteries, making it environmentally friendly and inexpensive to operate. It is versatile, agitates and pumps the sludge. It also has a provision for medium water pressure jetting for declogging. Due to its small size, Jalodbust™ can even access narrow lanes and remote locations to remove liquid waste and sludge without any physical intervention of the sanitation workers, hence eliminating hazardous cleaning completely. It agitates the settled sludge, liquefies it, and then brings it to the transportation system without any kind of human intervention, thus saving the worker from contact with sanitary sludge, risk of disease, and the drudgery of hard labor. This designed transportation system also contributes to the ease and earnings of the sanitation workercontributes to the ease and earnings of the sanitation worker as well.[2] JALODBUSTTM has two devices- Pride and SaniPreneur that replaces the shovel and bucket with technology that is used to extract the faecal sludge. The extracted sludge consists of upto 10% solids that upon treatment can be converted to nutrient-rich manure and soil conditioner which can be sold at 5-10 INR per kg. Therefore, a sanitation worker may be able to generate about 500-1000 INR from every trip conducted.

Implementation & Impact

JALODBUST™ has not been implemented yet, however many design iteration tests, trial runs and a few pilots have been completed. The innovation JALODBUST™ is patent applied, bearing Application No. 201841041735. An IoT based application for Jalodbust™ is being developed which will collect data on the total quantity of sludge removed each day. This will show the removal of sanitary sludge in terms of volume and days worked to complete the activity to the concerned stakeholders.

The innovation is a low-cost pro-poor innovation. as its cost is low. Jalodbust™ is going towill create a new line of dignified blue-collar livelihood in the field of sanitation. The product is designed as a complete solution for all sanitation workers and individuals who would like work to keep their drainage system unclogged and clear. It benefits sanitation workers by removing the risk of physical exposure to sewage and sludge. It is useful across all geographies including areas that do not have a fully functional sewer sanitation system.
They have Jalodbust™won the ASME I-Show India, Bio-Smart and ISC-FICCI in 2020.