DIPTI KHOSLA: Design Opportunities Water (Team - HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS)

DIPTI KHOSLA: Design Opportunities Water (Team - HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS)

Where I see myself in the next fifteen years working in the Himalayan Foothills:

As I’m aware about the problems in the Himalayan regions quite thoroughly now... I realised that fifteen years from now the people in the upper regions of the country including the Himalayas shall suffer from serious floods as global warming at that time shall be at its peak... and its results shall be evident. In such a situation I wanted to come up with something that can serve as a quick solution to save them from drowning... and also when they are in a relatively drier region they should have a shelter over their heads to save them from the weather conditions considering their houses would have all been wrecked.

So, I thought about a bamboo boat that can be dismantled to make a shelter/roof.

YEAR 1: Having some idea in my mind about the form should help me put it down on paper some how.... but I shall still need a bamboo expert and an engineer, preferably a friend of mine (this is because he/she shall not charge me or charge nominal. it will be more interest based rather than money based) who is well versed with boats to tell me about d construction of a boat. We shall work together on making the boat. The finance for all this shall be funded by me. I wish to see how the idea works and help the people in the Himalayas. This shall not be a way to earn from them.

YEAR 2: Then I shall shortlist about 4-5 cities/villages in these regions and head towards it along with my engineer friend and shall interact with d locals there. We intend to educate them about the growing possibilities of more and more flash floods and also educate them regarding water conservation which shall be greatly in need during floods. We work with them and understand their approach towards making boats and dealing with bamboo. We enhance our own skills by learning from them and attempt at coming up with a good, workable design for " dismantlable bamboo boats ". We make several protypes and test them till we decide finally on one.

YEAR 3-4 : The locals learn our design and test it for themselves. They keep it as it helps them in the time of need and is made from bamboo, which is easily available around them. I'm sure the boats shall not be very difficult to make and they would need only basic tools to make them hence it shall be easy for the locals to multiply them and spread it in their neighbouring regions. Once my engineer friend and I see that the design is being put to good use... we leave from the himalayas to our own cities.

YEAR 5-15 : As the technique of making a boat-cum-shelter spreads across the Himalayas, I keep in touch with the villagers and get to know about some more of their problems so that I could once again try my level best along with other professionals to be able to bring design to their aid.

DIPTI KHOSLA: (Team - HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS)