Asia-Pacific, Development & Aid, Environment, Featured, Food & Agriculture, Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), Headlines, Health, Natural Resources, Poverty & SDGs, Regional Categories, TerraViva United Nations, Water & Sanitation NEW DEHLI, Aug 28 2018 (IPS) – At New Delhi’s Savda Ghevra slum settlement, waterborne diseases have become less frequent thanks to solar-powered water ATMs that were installed here as a social enterprise venture three years ago.
“The water is cheap, reliable and fresh-tasting,” Saeeda, a mother of three who lives close to an ATM, tells IPS.
It means she pays 4.5 Rupees (about 6 US cents) for 15 litres of pure drinking water.
Over the last 25 years India’s ministry of new and renewable energy, a GGGI partner, has developed specialised programmes for both drinking water as well as irrigation systems using solar water pumping systems of which there are now an estimated 15,000 units.
Sarvajal Piramal is not the only group that has set up solar-powered water ATMs in New Delhi or other parts of Delhi.
“This is the kind of decentralised, neighbourhood solutions that the Global Green Growth Initiative (GGGI) is interested in,” the Netherlands-based group’s deputy director and water sector lead, Peter Vos, tells IPS.
As a predominantly agricultural country, with the world’s largest irrigated area serviced by some 26 million groundwater pumps mostly run on diesel or electricity, GGGI is keenly interested in India’s plans to switch to the use of solar power for irrigation.
Under India’s National Solar Mission programme, farmers are now supported with capital cost subsidies for solar pump systems.
In fact, the Indian government has plans to export solar pumping systems and expertise to countries interested in greener alternatives for irrigation.
Over the last 25 years India’s ministry of new and renewable energy, a GGGI partner, has developed specialised programmes for both drinking water as well as irrigation systems using solar water pumping systems of which there are now an estimated 15,000 units.