PRECIOUS WATER FLOWS LIKE MONEY OUT OF ATMs
-Water at the click of a button-
NEW DELHI: Despite being the national
capital, several areas in Delhi don’t have access to clean, drinking water.
Dependence on water tankers of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has become a way of life
for hundreds of residents in several areas that are either at tail end of
distribution or are not at all connected to water supply lines.
Savda Ghevra – a dusty resettlement colony
in North West Delhi – is a home to a new experiment in water distribution, the
water ATMs. Residents of Savda Ghevra have 15 tall, cylindrical, concrete water
dispensing, machines in their colony that run on power from solar panels. These
machines have changed the way of life for many families.
Now, all they have to do is swipe their ATM
card through one such machine and draw water at just 30 paise per litre.
“Whenever I need drinking water, my 8 year old son takes the smart card and
fills the bottle from the ATM,” says Geeta, s resident.
People carrying water bottles and buckets in on hand
and the smart card in the other is a common sight in Savda Ghevra.
The ATMs have been installed by Sarvajal, an Ahmedabad
- based social enterprise, in each partnership with DJB. Each ATM has a small
screen, which shows details such as the amount of water withdrawn ad the
balance amount in the card.
The card costs Rs.100, of which Rs.50 is
one time fee. The card can be recharged with a minimum of Rs.50 at Sarvajal’s
water purification plant in the colony, which services the ATMs. Nearly 1000
residents have got water ATM cards and the total consumption of water from all
the 15 ATMs is roughly about 3000 litres each. Each water ATM holds a maximum
of 500 litres.
“We are working with the community to make
them understand the value of affordable drinking water,” says Sharma.
A step ahead to water safety…!
