A group of ‘junior scientists' studying at the International Indian School, Riyadh (IISR) have developed a project for waste-water treatment that won them second prize at a regional All Indian Science Exhibition (AISE) held in New Delhi last month. AISE was organized under the banner of the Central Board of Secondary Education that received around 110 scientific models from international Indian community schools in the Gulf and Delhi known as the ‘Delhi zone.' The 15 short-listed entries will now participate in a two-day National Science Exhibition to be held in New Delhi from Oct. 18. This will be a national event where high school students from all six zones categorized by CBSE will present their innovative scientific work. The four IISR high school students demonstrated their scientific ingenuity on how a waste-water treatment plant could successfully utilize an innovative self-sustainable ‘aerobic process.' The Indian ‘junior scientists', as they were called at AISE, included Taha Talib Al-Rahman, Saqib Suhail, Salman Shami, and Jitin Raj. The group was led by Muhammad Irfan, IISR science teacher. This year's themes at the AISE annual event were Green Evolution by Waste-Water Treatment and Developing Miniature Models of Big Plants run through Reverse Osmosis. The IISR quartet proved their mettle by demonstrating their innovative idea judged by renowned Indian scientific experts who acted as AISE judges including Dr. Subash C. Dutta, (former professor of Chemistry at Hansraj College, New Delhi) Dr. Dua, Education Consultant, CBSE and Dr. Y.P. Purang, Additional Director of Education, National Capital Territory and member of CBSE Board. Irfan said the boys worked hard for three hours on a daily basis for two weeks to develop the project. “It was a unique idea that the boys at IISR developed and successfully demonstrated at the exhibition.” The idea of the IISR's boys on green evolution by waste-water treatment was to revolutionize the technology from the conventional anaerobic to aerobic “and they achieved it through utilizing the microbes present in the waste-water that act on the pollutants such as human excreta or urine and other salts and liberate methane gas that in turn generate enough energy to run the plant.” Another advantage of the ‘aerobic process' was to produce fertilizer as a by-product, not available in the existing anaerobic technology, he said. He said the IISR boys' innovative idea could also help Saudi Arabia, which employs waste-water technology that runs on conventional anaerobic methodology. __
