The water crisis in India According to Water.org, 163 million Indians are currently living without access to safe and clean water.
Last year, WaterAid’s ‘State of the World’s Water‘ report disclosed that 63.4 million people in rural areas are living without access to clean drinking water, which is more than any other country.
Most of the rural drinking water comes from wells, hand-pumps, and tube-wells, as the scattered population is not ideal for a piped system.
Women, children, and economics: The unseen consequences Lack of access to water is one of the major causes of the feminisation of poverty (disproportionate impact of poverty on women as compared to men) in India.
Empowering women is critical to solving the nation’s water crisis.
Even school-going children find themselves on the losing side as the family water-collection duties take time away from study and play.
On the other hand, Piramal Sarvajal deploys another innovative and technological solution for creating affordable access to safe drinking water—that of Water ATMs.
The Water ATM technology was also used in Rajasthan as part of Cairn India’s ‘Jeevan Amrit Project,’ where kiosks with Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants were installed in villages like Aakdada, Batyu, Bhakharpur, Guda, Jogasar, and Kawas with the aim of making potable water available at the doorsteps of the local community.
Moreover, since these machines are portable, the facility can also be availed in the surrounding areas and hamlets at an additional cost of less than Rs 2.
For this Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, Cairn India has undertaken a collaboration with the Rajasthan Government’s Public Health Engineering Department, Tata Projects, and the concerned village Panchayats.