Swajal- A step towards making clean drinking water accessible to all.

Swajal- A step towards making clean drinking water accessible to all.

Water is one of the most basic necessities of life. Clean drinking water is not only a person’s need, but his basic right. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford it. Every Indian is well aware of the issue of water scarcity in our country. We manage to fulfill our need of drinking water by buying bottled water or installing water purifiers, but that is not the case with everyone. A huge unprivileged part of our country suffers seriously from the lack of clean drinking water.

Every minute 4 people die because of the inaccessibility of clean drinking water. 5000 people die everyday because of dirty drinking water. 1600 people die everyday due to diarrhea alone. 21% of all the communicable diseases are water related. 69% people don’t have access to improved sanitation. These indeed are very depressing facts and the situation needs to be changed sooner rather than later.

Several start-ups are beginning to tackle problems relating to water. One such start-up is ‘Swajal’, initiated by Saurya EnerTech. The word ‘Swajal’ in Sanskrit means ‘Clean Water’. Swajal is a purifier which uses solar energy to purify water at a reasonable rate. It aims to make clean drinking water accessible to everyone. Swajal’s objective is to provide the rural areas with sustainable health and hygiene benefits and improved water supply systems supplying clean water.

Five out of the 900 villages in the area that comprises Delhi and NCR have been picked to test this solar water purifier. Swajal has also installed two 5000 litres per day purifiers in Chandankhera and Karinabaugh villages where the fluoride content in water is very high. A fixed amount of clean water is auto-dispensed to each consumer via a smartcard issued by non-profit organization which commissioned the solar purifiers. The purifier also has the feature of dispensing both hot and cold water.

The company has decided to supply the water at 30 paise per litre when the capital expenses are paid for. Even when the capital expenses are self sponsored, Swajal dispenses the purified ground water at Rs 1 per litre. They plan on beginning to help the schools and hospitals in rural areas. "Water is the most basic resource that all of us share. We want it to be free for everyone," says Vibha Tripathi, one of the co-founders of Saurya EnerTech.

Swajal surely has the potential to change the current scenario of water scarcity. It is a vital step towards the development of rural sections of India, and ultimately the development of the country itself.

 Source: The Economic Times-The Times of India.