A water ATM to the rescue

Picture this. In an area that is so prone to drought that every year debt-ridden farmers commit suicide by the dozen, a man walks up to a counter. With the swipe of a smart card, he buys 20 litres of clean drinking water for Rs 5. The rural entrepreneur selling the water, earns up to Rs 9,000 per month. Through a single intervention — an ATM-like iJal Station, US-based Safe Water Network, SWN, ensures the availability of potable water, and a viable livelihood opportunity for some of India’s poorest and most disempowered communities.”Our aim is to create easily replicable models of drinking water enterprise, not just in India, but anywhere in the world where people don’t have access to safe drinking water,” says Founder and CEO of SWN, Kurt Soderlund. Co-founded in 2006 by the late actor and philanthropist Paul Newman, along with prominent American civic and business leaders, SWN has worked in India since 2008 to provide over a quarter of a million people with daily access to safe water. Here’s how they do it. 

In collaboration with donors and potential entrepreneurs, SWN analyses the commercial feasibility of setting up an iJal Station at a specific location. Then, the entrepreneur provides the fixed assets. SWN contributes technical expertise to set up a world-class reverse osmosis water treatment system; trains the entrepreneur to operate the system and disseminate knowledge about safe water; as well as provides marketing support and maintenance help. All in all, the station costs less than Rs 20 lakh to set up and typically services 300-350 households. On an average, each iJal station sells about 175 cans (also provided and cleaned at the station) with a capacity of 20 litres every day. Crucial to their methodology is the creation of clusters of iJal stations. “This enables our technical personnel to monitor and maintain the stations efficiently and cost-effectively,” says Ravi Sewak, SWN’s India country director. 

Since they began work in India eight years ago, SWN has set up 187 iJal stations across the country, with 172 in Telangana alone. “With support from our principal donors Honeywell, Pentair, Pepsico and UL, we’re now adding up to five new iJal stations every month,” says Soderlund. Interestingly, one of the biggest challenges they have faced has been to convince villagers that drinking clean water is imperative to their continued good health — even if it meant paying for it. “We have conducted massive outreach programs, trained station operators to be safe water advocates and improved the branding and signage at our safe water stations,” says Poonam Sewak, vice president (knowledge and partnerships) at SWN. However over time, the iJal Stations have become their own brand ambassadors. “We have noticed that months after a station has been set up, people from neighbouring areas come and request for similar water station facilities in their villages too,” she says. This is because the effects of drinking clean water on people’s health and well-being become palpable in a few months alone. “The incidence of waterborne diseases has reduced and resulted in greater productivity,” says she.

The iJal station entrepreneurship model is easily replicable and available on the open source platform. “The idea, when we started operations was to sharpen the focus of CSR projects and philanthropic works for maximum social impact,” says Soderlund. Indeed, their focus on providing safe and affordable drinking water is crucial to public health. Water and sanitation-related illnesses account for 70-80 per cent of the country’s diseases. 

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Although SWN has expanded operations beyond Telangana in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, the task ahead is daunting. Over 100 million people in India still lack access to clean drinking water. Nearly 75 per cent of India’s surface water is contaminated by human, animal, agricultural and industrial waste, and high levels of fluoride and other mineral contaminants in much of its groundwater. 

Meanwhile, the oldest iJal station has been running successfully in Telangana for the last seven years. As SWN creates new corporate linkages and grows its clusters of iJal stations, it could signal the beginning of an important social revolution in the country — one drop of safe drinking water at a time. 

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A water ATM to the rescue