Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Sept 23: The state is basking in the achievements of its daughters. Just like Ananya Sritam Nanda who made Orissa proud at the national level by winning the Indian Idol Junior-2015 singing contest, another Oriya girl has won laurels at the international level.
Student of Class IX at DPS Damanjodi, Lalita Prasida Sripada Srisai has won the Community Impact Award at the prestigious Google Science Fair for Purifying Water with Corn Cobs held in California.
She was in the 13 to 15 age group. She received a prize money of $10,000 besides promise of support for one full year to build her project. The 13-year-old developed a low-cost water purifier which uses corn cobs in an innovative manner. The purifier functions mainly on waste corn cobs. It is a cost-effective and simple technique which is useful in immobilising contaminants in domestic and industrial effluents and in ponds, reservoirs and tanks.
“Hence contaminants like oxides of salts, detergents, suspended particles, coloured dyes, oil and grease get adsorbed in the surface of the corn cobs. Some of the heavy metals are also adsorbed by corn cobs. If the drain pipe of a household is connected to a chamber having different layers of corn cobs in partition layers or to an S-trap pipe having corn cobs, it will separate about 70-80 per cent of the contaminants including suspended particles from the waste water,” says the report published on her project on the Google Science Fair website.
Headmaster of DPS Damanjodi, Trinath Prasad Padhi informed Lalita is also proficient in extra-curricular activities like music and dance. A major function at the school has been planned in her honour after her return, said Padhi.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik congratulated Lalita and said she has made Orissa and India proud. Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan has congratulated Lalita on her success. She was also congratulated by thousands on social media.
Lalita began her studies in the hilly meadows of Nagaland, moved to the Gangetic plains of West Bengal and finally to the Western Ghats that have the distinction of being the secondary centre of the origin of rice and a natural home to more than 50 different aboriginals. Currently, she is living in Damanjodi famous for the presence of Asia’s largest bauxite refinery located in the district of Koraput.