PANJIM: As a part of the ‘Give Goa’ project community outreach programme, the students of Goa Institute of Management (GIM) are working closely with the villagers of Morlem and Harvalem, in Sattari, to develop a roadmap for sustainable development of the village for next five years.
Associate Prof and faculty guide on the project Vithal Sukhathankar said that the project is focused towards creating a sustainability blueprint for the village that includes community engagement, identifying the needs of the villagers, identifying funding opportunities, etc.
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As per GIM, the student outreach initiative is to educate young minds about sustainable practices including judicious use of natural resources, water and power usage and saving and waste management methods.
The programme, commissioned by GIM’s Centre for Excellence in Sustainable Development, documented the current scenario of the village on various parameters like demographic, economic, natural ecosystem, water availability and its source, etc.
During their course of study, the students realized that the villagers from Morlem and Harvalem were unaware about the basic issues related to waste management and conservation of natural resources.
Explaining about the work, GIM student Sonali Sahoo said that “climate change is a global issue, which is being addressed across countries. We felt that there is need to educate the young minds on sustainable living practices, like reduce dependency on plastics and keeping surroundings clean”.
The B-school students recommended the creation of localized grid connected solar power system to meet the energy requirement of the villagers and surrounding areas. The student discussed the solar project concept with the local panchayats and with Goa Energy Development Agency (GEDA) to discuss the feasibility of solar panel installation on the roof of the Morlem panchayat structure.
“The average use of energy in each household in the village is estimated to be relatively low. However, power outages are frequent. Hence, it was need to focus on solar power generation,” the students said.
