Jun 13 2014 : Mirror (Pune)
Making drinking water safe
MUDAR PATHERYA
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How Eureka Forbes brought about a change with their Community Fulfilment Initiatives, formed to provide responsible drinking water solutions for rural Indians ALAPSED SPORTS WRITER WHO'S FOUND FAITH IN INDIA'S CORPORATE PHILANTHROPY Liked/hated his column! write to Mudar Patherya at mirrorfeedback@timesgroup.com punemirror.feedback@gmail.com
Honestly, when was the last time you ventured into the back of beyond with out mineral water? The usual fears we face: drinking water will be infested with bacteria or organic chemical traces inherited from pesticides and effluents.You and I are not alone. There are 96 million Indians (more than the size of a number of countries) without access to safe water. Over 186,000 children die annually from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation, about 70 million Indians in 20 states and 600 districts are at risk from excess fluoride and around 10 million Indians are at risk from excess arsenic in our ground water. The numbers are so large that we have stopped worrying. The one company that resolved to be the difference was Eureka Forbes.
Partly because the subject of clean water was its business. Partly because it cared.
Over the years, Eureka Forbes started a division called `Community Fulfillment Initiatives' with the objective to provide `responsible drinking water solutions' and encouraging `water entrepreneurship' for rural Indians. The core idea was an old one -provide clean drinking water to those who don't get it. The twist was the entrepreneurial bit; the company created a local entrepreneurial interest so that the providers were from the same community of beneficiaries.
This is how: Eureka Forbes encouraged rural communities to buy a 500 LPH/RO/Automated with an automated dispensing unit plant for Rs 6 lakh with the objective of starting a commercial service vending purified drinking water to villagers with a payback of around four years. This is how the system worked: Eureka Forbes' water scientists and field experts tested water conditions before setting up a water purification plant (Eureka Forbes has developed seven technologies around 17 different Indian water conditions).
The plant provides water 24x7 without depending on the whims of the operator.
What Eureka Forbes provided was a unique automated dispensing unit that worked around a pre-paid card. Against a periodic top-up, neigh bourhood residents could go to the machine and access clean drinking water. Soon the word spread that at this unique `water shop', it was as easy to access water as withdrawing money from an ATM machine -no water spluttering to a stop, no water changing colour, no water tasting different. All they need to do is use a unique Water Card, its use tracked remotely by Eureka Forbes.
Whereas most companies in Eureka Forbes' place would have made one-time local investments to provide free drinking water and leave it to others to take the game ahead, the company did the reverse. It created a scalable model that was fair to its commercial interests, the community's consumption interest and the government's social interest.
Whereas most agencies would have said `How can we put a price on something as fundamental as water?', Eureka Forbes created a dispensing shop, pricing water at 10-50 paise per litre, justified around the idea that rural families with an average monthly income of Rs 4,000 spend Rs 200 on medicines anyway to treat diseases caused by impure drinking water. Suddenly, preventive treatment acquired a new ally.
Whereas most agencies would have said `We have given you reasonably safe water and that should be good enough,' Eureka Forbes benchmarked its delivery in line with the demanding WHO standards; it plugged loops related to money and water leakages by plant operators and water mafias operating in India's rural areas.
Whereas most companies would have provided infrastructure and left, Eureka Forbes focused on creating cross-sector partnership between gram panchayats, state governments, NGOs and local communities to promote a collaborative entrepreneurship model, providing villagers with the opportunity to run the plants, sell water and generate a business while working closely with city-based water distributors and the government (State and Central).
The result is that Eureka Forbes now has water shops across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Some of the results are amazing. In Manikyapuram (Andhra Pradesh), the community water plants have helped moderate the long-standing incidence of anaemia, weak teeth, sore joints and birth defects in children who for years had been exposed to water with high total dissolved solids including fluoride. In the slum communities of Agra, this model has empowered a women's slum group to start a water-based business enterprise. In Unnao (Uttar Pradesh) the water shops have helped counter life-endangering fluorosis (derived from groundwater fluoride) that led to bone deformities in children, labourers, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
Why this is model is fascinating is because it has addressed a basic human need, linked that need to income generation, created entrepreneurs, addressed customers from within the community and generated hidden savings (lower health care costs). This then could be a model waiting to attract financiers for onward replication across the country.
Partly because the subject of clean water was its business. Partly because it cared.
Over the years, Eureka Forbes started a division called `Community Fulfillment Initiatives' with the objective to provide `responsible drinking water solutions' and encouraging `water entrepreneurship' for rural Indians. The core idea was an old one -provide clean drinking water to those who don't get it. The twist was the entrepreneurial bit; the company created a local entrepreneurial interest so that the providers were from the same community of beneficiaries.
This is how: Eureka Forbes encouraged rural communities to buy a 500 LPH/RO/Automated with an automated dispensing unit plant for Rs 6 lakh with the objective of starting a commercial service vending purified drinking water to villagers with a payback of around four years. This is how the system worked: Eureka Forbes' water scientists and field experts tested water conditions before setting up a water purification plant (Eureka Forbes has developed seven technologies around 17 different Indian water conditions).
The plant provides water 24x7 without depending on the whims of the operator.
What Eureka Forbes provided was a unique automated dispensing unit that worked around a pre-paid card. Against a periodic top-up, neigh bourhood residents could go to the machine and access clean drinking water. Soon the word spread that at this unique `water shop', it was as easy to access water as withdrawing money from an ATM machine -no water spluttering to a stop, no water changing colour, no water tasting different. All they need to do is use a unique Water Card, its use tracked remotely by Eureka Forbes.
Whereas most companies in Eureka Forbes' place would have made one-time local investments to provide free drinking water and leave it to others to take the game ahead, the company did the reverse. It created a scalable model that was fair to its commercial interests, the community's consumption interest and the government's social interest.
Whereas most agencies would have said `How can we put a price on something as fundamental as water?', Eureka Forbes created a dispensing shop, pricing water at 10-50 paise per litre, justified around the idea that rural families with an average monthly income of Rs 4,000 spend Rs 200 on medicines anyway to treat diseases caused by impure drinking water. Suddenly, preventive treatment acquired a new ally.
Whereas most agencies would have said `We have given you reasonably safe water and that should be good enough,' Eureka Forbes benchmarked its delivery in line with the demanding WHO standards; it plugged loops related to money and water leakages by plant operators and water mafias operating in India's rural areas.
Whereas most companies would have provided infrastructure and left, Eureka Forbes focused on creating cross-sector partnership between gram panchayats, state governments, NGOs and local communities to promote a collaborative entrepreneurship model, providing villagers with the opportunity to run the plants, sell water and generate a business while working closely with city-based water distributors and the government (State and Central).
The result is that Eureka Forbes now has water shops across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Some of the results are amazing. In Manikyapuram (Andhra Pradesh), the community water plants have helped moderate the long-standing incidence of anaemia, weak teeth, sore joints and birth defects in children who for years had been exposed to water with high total dissolved solids including fluoride. In the slum communities of Agra, this model has empowered a women's slum group to start a water-based business enterprise. In Unnao (Uttar Pradesh) the water shops have helped counter life-endangering fluorosis (derived from groundwater fluoride) that led to bone deformities in children, labourers, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
Why this is model is fascinating is because it has addressed a basic human need, linked that need to income generation, created entrepreneurs, addressed customers from within the community and generated hidden savings (lower health care costs). This then could be a model waiting to attract financiers for onward replication across the country.
