St Andrews 2024 Prize for the Environment Awarded to Kham River Restoration Mission

In an awards ceremony on 31 October, the Kham River Restoration Mission won the 2024 St Andrews Prize for the Environment, carrying a prize value of $100,000. This came in recognition of the project’s efforts to restore a seasonal river flowing through the Maharashtrian city of Aurangabad in India. 

Managed by EcoSattva Environmental Solutions, the Kham River Restoration Mission is a public-private partnership that started in 2019. Since then, the project has facilitated the cleaning and dredging of eleven kilometres of the river, the elimination of 171 garbage vulnerable points, and the diversion of more than five million litres of sewage per day to treatment plants. 

Historically, the Kham has provided drinking water to Aurangabad, but the river became unrecognisable as a result of overpopulation. Following this, EcoSattva analysed the river to find out where the pollutants were entering. These findings resulted in its cleanup and dredging, as well as the planting of plants and trees to boost biodiversity. Not only were there environmental benefits to this, but also socio-economic ones such as educating local residents on effective waste management practices. 

Co-founder of EcoSattva, Natasha Zarine, accepted the award at the ceremony and said: “It’s extraordinary to be here — to be at St Andrews … this inspiring campus and town.” On winning the Prize, she also described that it will “push our project forward and our approach.”

This year marks the 26th annual St Andrews Prize for the Environment, which has awarded more than $2.5 million in prize money since it first launched in 1998. The Prize seeks to recognise individuals and organisations which protect the environment and promote a more sustainable society through their innovative solutions. It is overseen by Master of the United College and co-lead for the Sustainability theme in the University Strategy Professor Ineke De Moortel, who is also a judge on the competition panel. 

Amanda Skinner, Senior Manager for Sustainability in the Corporate Communications Office, chaired the working group that promoted and coordinated over 40 events to engage with both the Prize and Sustainability Week as a whole. Skinner emphasised the importance of the St Andrews Prize for the Environment and said: “We are facing a climate crisis and biodiversity collapse which are already having serious implications for how we navigate our planet’s future.  With sustainability now a strategic theme in the University’s governance strategy, the Prize serves as a global commitment to sustainability that extends beyond our local community — and as such, the theme of Sustainability Week went from global to local.”

When asked what the competition was looking for, Professor Sir Ian Boyd, the chair of the judging panel, said: “We were looking for originality and impact. The challenge is that there are so many worthy projects to choose from.” Moreover, Professor Boyd said that what stood out from this project was that “it had achieved a great deal in a very short time and with only modest resources … by appreciating that the whole system of waste management had to be changed.” 

Runners-up for the award were Northwoods Rewilding Network and Washbox. The former is coordinated by rewilding charity SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, a Scotland-wide chain of landholdings committed to nature recovery. The latter is an Australian company whose closed-loop water system aids the elimination of construction pollution from entering waterways. 

Looking towards next year, Professor Boyd said: “The future is bright. It is an inspirational initiative.” Skinner concluded by highlighting the necessity to “review the entire program of events and look for areas where we can improve.” Professor De Moortel hopes to “increase the involvement of our own community, staff and students, to interact more with the finalists when they are here in St Andrews but also afterwards.”

Photo provided by the Press Office of St Andrews