Waterlife : Improving Access to Safe Drinking Water in India
With 700 million people residing in rural India over a large and diverse topography, providing access to safe drinking water is a significant challenge. The government has tried, playing a key role in financing and implementing drinking water schem...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Case Study |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/586371495104964514/Waterlife-improving-access-to-safe-drinking-water-in-India http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27664 |
| Summary: | With 700 million people residing in
rural India over a large and diverse topography, providing
access to safe drinking water is a significant challenge.
The government has tried, playing a key role in financing
and implementing drinking water schemes. However, about 30
percent of urban and 90 percent of rural households still
depend completely on untreated surface or groundwater. The
health and economic burdens of poor drinking water are
enormous. It is estimated that about 21 percent of
communicable diseases in India are water-related. In
response, Waterlife, a for-profit company based out of
Hyderabad, has experimented with an innovative business
model—building and operating stand-alone water purification
plants in underserved areas of India that would otherwise
have no access to safe drinking water. Waterlife partners
with local governments to provide the location and money for
construction of the plants. Customers pay a small fee to
fill up their 20-liter water jars, and this fee is used to
pay back the government expenditure and cover ongoing plant
maintenance and operations. The Waterlife model builds
strong community ownership due to a transparent operating
system with responsive customer service; community awareness
campaigns on the importance of safe drinking water;
locations in convenient public settings; and the training of
a local corps of villagers to manage plant operations and
maintenance. Impact can be seen in a reduced incidence of
waterborne diseases and related medical expenses and
improved job opportunities and school attendance for local
villages. The expectation is that if continued and expanded,
the utilization of Waterlife plants will enhance long-term
economic and health development outcomes for disadvantaged
and disenfranchised populations in India. |
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