Inspiration

As a group, we went to go see the lake and river. They were familiar places where we spent a lot of our time together. On one particular day however, that same place was clogged like an artery with trash and rotting fish on it's surface. We were devastated that the river we always come to spend time in is now polluted. This made us realize that river pollution was not just an environmental issue, but also a threat to the aquatic life. This set us up for our innovative journey to stop the trash and let the fish go at the same time. We wanted to develop a solution that could collect floating waste without completely blocking the passage of fish. This inspired us to create the Three-Way Trash Collecting Dam with Fish Pathway.

What it does

Our prototype is designed to collect floating rubbish by using a mesh barrier while providing a lower passage for fish to move through. By separating the trash collection area from the fish tunnel, our design aims to reduce the amount of waste travelling down rivers whilst letting aquatic life pass through.

How we built it

We constructed our prototype using two acrylic panels, styrofoam, mesh and hot glue. Each component contributed to the construction or waste collection mechanism. We put together these materials into a barrier designed to demonstrate how rubbish could be caught while keeping a separate path below.

Challenges we ran into

During construction, we discovered that the styrofoam will soak up the water after a while which could affect its overall performance. We solved that by applying a waterproofing agent. Then we also discovered that the dam became too buoyant to stay inside the container. To improver its structural integrity, we glued it to the container for stability. These challenges taught us the importance of an effective design compared to a good idea, it also requires testing, troubleshooting and improvement.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We accomplished even making it in the competition in the first place. We are proud to have developed our idea into a physical prototype. More importantly, we achieved an innovation that could steer our country in the right step into a greener future. This was also a concern about river pollution that we turned into a engineering solution that explores how trash collection and fish passages can work together.

What we learned

We learnt that the first step to innovating a solution is identifying the problem that matters to us. We also learned the importance of adapting our designs on the way and learn from our failures as a group to create something better than what we started with.

What's next for Three-way trash collecting dam with fish pathway

We aim for this to be applied in real-life using stronger, more durable, waterproof and potentially easily mass-producible materials. We also aim to conduct further tests for water flow to evaluate it's trash collecting efficiency and structural stability to ensure a safe path for fish. With further design tweaks and testing, we hope to explore the potential of this project to suit the waterways throughout Indonesia to help communities work towards cleaner rivers and healthier aquatic wildlife ecosystems.