Water ATMs emerge in India’s urban slums — a clean water breakthrough

Published on September 14, 2013 18:18 by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Non Profit

Many of the residents ofSavda Ghevra— a resettled slum in the western part of Delhi, India — spend several hours a day acquiring water for basic daily needs like drinking, washing, and cooking. The cumbersome and time consuming process often involves waiting in long lines for sporadic trips from government-sponsored water tankers, and long walks with heavy containers to water sources that are at risk for being unclean.But a for-profit five-year-old startup calledSarvajal("water for all" in Sanskrit), which is backed by thePiramal Foundation, is trying to offer a better way. The company has built a business off of developing franchise-run water filtration and distribution services in rural areas of India and is now in the process of launching newly-developed connected ATM-style systems that can distribute low cost, clean water to customers using an ATM card.

Sarvajal already has 35 of its water ATMs installed in urban areas in India, and the plan is to launch another 50 in the coming months across slum redevelopment communities in Delhi. The ATMs are owned and managed by local franchisee entrepreneurs and the devices have some 25 sensors, which manage and monitor water pressure and filtration, and make maintenance and repair of the systems low cost and easy.

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