There is a critical correlation between clean water access, conflict, cooperation and climate change; water for all is imperative

This year, the theme for World Water Day is ‘Water for Peace’. It renews the world’s focus on clean, safe, and affordable drinking water and its complex relationship with conflict, cooperation, and climate change. About 2 billion people still lack access to safe water  worldwide.

India, too, has been addressing the water needs of its citizens with the promise of tap water in each home, especially in the last decade, where nearly piped water access has reached 75% of India’s homes. Community-based water treatment plants help purify groundwater to serve such civilian needs. Decentralised Safe Water Enterprises (SWEs), popularly called Water ATMs, have provided low-cost, 24x7, safe drinking water access solutions for quality-affected communities and consumers on the go.

In 2018, Haryana became the first state to develop a policy to put a water ATM every 400 m in public places in its cities. The Delhi Government also announced 500 similar water ATMs in slums and other densely populated areas in 2023.

The Water Aunties

Safe Water Network India (SWN), through its Water ATMs called iJal Stations, helps provide safe water access to over 1.3 million people in India across Telangana, Maharashtra and Western Uttar Pradesh. In 2023, consumers bought over 350 million litres of water from its iJal stations, which had an uptime above 98 per cent around the year. Nearly 56 per cent of these 350 Water ATMs are managed and operated by women affectionately called Water Aunties by their communities. 

The consumers collect safe water in their 20-litre cans from these iJal Stations. This prevents the scourge of single-use plastic bottled water, provides freedom and livelihood to low-income communities, negates the endless wait for the water tankers, and serves localities with contamination-free potable water.

“The stations have proven to be an oases, especially in the scorching heat and severe drought conditions,” said Sinduja, a Water Aunty in Telangana. India is now home to around 65,000 Water ATMs set up by 30 national-level implementers and State Governments.

The Cost Burden

The buck does not stop just with the provision, access, or management of safe drinking water. For instance, the revenue from these Water ATMs is turning out to be unsustainable for many of the implementers at the grassroots level, according to a report of the three-year project named Sustainable Enterprises for Water and Health (SEWAH) carried out by SWN in collaboration with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and data from ten other implementers.

The study found that the water revenue in these water ATMs, priced affordably at Rs 1 per litre and Rs 5 per 20 litre, barely met the current local operating costs, such as raw water, electricity, and operator salaries. The field service costs, such as the technician’s fee and high-value spare parts, overburden the operator’s expenditure. The implementers also do not cover expenses relating to cluster supervision, quality monitoring, equipment or facility upgrades, etc.

Time For An Uptime Model

The SWNI’s report, called Financial and Operating Performance of Water ATMs in 2023, warranted a relook at the sustainability of Water ATMs in India. This time, through a new lens, that would shift the total cost burden away from the operators and onto the taxpayers’ rupee for govt-funded systems or CSR grants of willing companies for grant-funded systems. The report specifically proposed a result-based funding model in which SWEs received funding depending on the volume of water sold, facility up-time or revenue collected, and quality compliance.

A global result-based funding organisation, Uptime Catalyst Facility, selected SWN’s iJal Stations for a sustainable performance-based incentive model for the implementers. The ideal Stations proved to be apt differentiators because their remote monitoring system and water metres provide real-time data on plant performance, the volume of water produced and sold, and the revenue collected. The revenue collected is easily monitored since the water is purchased using pre-paid RFID cards, digital QR codes, or coin dispensing. Looking at over a decade of operating experience, the Government of Karnataka selected SWN to help operationalize more than 18,000 Community Water Treatment Plants (or Water ATMs) in the state by training the village Panchayat, operators, contractors, and the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj staff at the district level. The project brought in the best practices of training, monitoring, and operating the plant for four years during the peak of COVID, starting in 2019.

A Digital Platform is now tested across states, and hundreds of systems are now export-ready on parameters that include physical and training components and Information Education and Communication campaigns to train at the grassroots level where semi-skilled operators. It is poised for replication in 17 countries, West Africa and five South Asian countries. SWN also has vast experience and training materials for training last-mile operating professionals for Water ATMs.

(The writer is VP of programmes & Partnerships, Safe Water Network India; views are personal)