“…A recent survey of national opinion revealed that when asked what would make respondents proud of India, a staggering 73 per cent said that availability of safe drinking water to all our people would truly make them proud of being an Indian….”

- Excerpted from the speech of Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, at the Conference of Ministers in-charge of Rural Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation, January 2006

Despite 60 years of independence why is basic supply of safe drinking water for all still a distant dream? Why is it that India forges ahead in space research but lags dismally in delivering potable water especially in rural areas to its people? Why is it that even regions self sufficient in water sources cannot solve the problem of potability? What happened to the millions of rupees spent by the government in creating water tanks and treatment plants? Uncomfortable questions, but essential if we are to arrive at a solution.

Led by the concerns underlying these questions Naandi was on the look out for a solution to purify contaminated water in villages to make it both pathogen-free, flouride-free and safe for drinking.

The solution for the former came in the form of a unique partnership, one part of which was a US based organisation, WaterHealth International (WHI), who brought into India for the first time, a cutting edge UV based technology – UVWaterworks™. This technology, originally developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory by a well-known Indian physicist Dr Ashok Gadgil, is one of the most advanced, low maintenance technologies, which has proven to be eminently suitable for Indian rural conditions. And the other and more critical part of the partnership was the community, those families who have been living in resignation with the risks of drinking and using contaminated water everyday, who gave Naandi insights that helped create the Community Safe Drinking Water System (CSWS) for bringing safe drinking water to villages.

In the designing of the CSWS we realised privatisation of water supply was not the solution just as centralised water supply could never be. Village level local governments and rural communities were of the opinion that a sustainable solution to their drinking water problem lay only in a decentralised village model. All they wanted was a suitable technology, facilitation of its transfer to the villages, affordability of using the technology so that everyone could drink and use safe water equitably, and a guarantee that the technology will sustain.

The test for suitable technology was very simple. Villagers wanted to see crystal clear, safe drinking water emerge from the treatment process. They were convinced by third party laboratory tests that proved that pathogens and dissolved solids present in the untreated water disappeared after the water was treated through the CSWS, without leaving any adverse difference in the taste.

For the Safe Drinking Water System to come to villages, the village panchayats decided to play the role of community partners. They agreed to contribute at least 20 per cent towards the cost of setting up the purification plant, earmark a common drinking water source to draw water from, and allot land where WHI would set up the CSWS using their patented UVWaterworks™ technology.

This water purification plant aesthetically and cost effectively designed produces safe drinking water that serves the need of entire villages and often of their neighbouring communities. Today, for most villages these CSWS symbolise their move towards progress, towards playing a more proactive role that is ensuring better health for their households. Further community involvement is created when WHI, who takes upon them the responsibility of managing the CSWS, employs youth from the community itself and trains them to become plant operators.

Naandi plays the role of a social catalyst

There are three crucial functions that Naandi plays to make the model work in a sustainable manner. First, we bring to villages whose water sources have above acceptable levels of pathogen contamination, the CSWS concept. We prove to them the risks of continuing to use water from their present untreated water source, and convince the community about the need for a community-owned solution for their water potability problem. Transforming mindsets of the communities both in terms of them accepting that the water they drink is unsafe, and that the CSWS model is well suited for their needs is the first non-negotiable preparatory phase.

The second step is to serve as a bridge between UV waterworks™ the US based technology and the underserved communities / customers in villages. Naandi’s record of successful, sustainable community driven initiatives in other social sectors such as irrigation, education and healthcare with rural populations have gone a long way in lending communities the assurance that a solution backed and supported by Naandi in the years to come, will make a difference to their lives, and therefore smoothens the introduction of the technology into villages.

And third, is to play a pivotal role in engineering a revenue model for the CSWS to sustain. While 20 per cent of the capital cost for setting up a CSWS is raised by Naandi from the village either through contributions of an elected representative, or from personal contributions of villagers, or philanthropists (including NRIs), the rest is raised through an innovative long-term debt given by Indian commercial banks to WaterHealth International (the debt arrangement extended by the commercial banks is partly underwritten by the Gates Foundation through their grantee Acumen Fund, a US based charity). This is repaid through very affordable community user fees, which is collected as water purification cess on a daily basis.

To lead the much required Behaviour Change in terms of – encouraging communities to drink safe water, accessing this water through payment of a nominal user fee, linking the consumption of this water through promoting healthier lifestyles, and encouraging the adoption of better sanitation and hygienic practices – is attempted through active community interface of the Safe Water Promoter, the field-based crusader from Naandi.

This collaboration amongst a village, a global technology provider and a social engineering organisation has begun to respond to the safe drinking water needs of underserved communities faster, more effectively and efficiently than any previous attempts in independent India. It is spreading like a revolution, a Blue Revolution whose success is proven by the fact that within one year, the Community Safe Drinking Water Systems have been replicated in 25 villages, and work is in progress in an 50 additional. This apart, 300 more villages are in the pipeline to adopt this community based solution that will ensure equitable and affordable water for all in the villages.

By this trend, what started last year as a mission to provide safe drinking water to every Indian village by 2020 AD seems well on its way to becoming a reality sooner than planned.