Now get water from ATM machines

JanaJal, India’s premier water services company is revolutionizing the way clean and safe water is delivered to communities through Water ATMs, Water on Wheels and Community Drinking Water Projects. There is a wide gap in the demand and supply of safe drinking water. Nearly 680 million Indians have no access to safe water. Women and children walk several miles to fetch water, which prevents them from going to schools or having a job. This has a severe negative impact on the economic growth of the country.

JanaJal adopts a technology agnostic approach and believes in evolving and adapting to new water treatment technologies to solve different water related issues. Given that water changes every 5-10 kms in India, every water ATM is custom built to suit the environment in which it is intended to operate in. Besides accepting coins, all water ATMs are enabled with cashless transacting capability through QR codes, RFID cards and e-wallets using digital touch-screen user interface. This helps align JanaJal’s efforts with Digital India and eliminates dependence on transacting through cash and coins that is highly restrictive. Complete access to real-time consumption data through online qualitative (TDS level, temperature, hardness and pH) and quantitative (litres of water dispensed per day) monitoring using cloud-based servers has enabled anticipatory maintenance, thereby making the operations efficient. A globally unique world class IoT (Internet of Things) based controllers connected to a cloud-based platform has been developed by the company as its own IP.

Commenting on the technology platform built by JanaJal, Parag Agarwal, Founder & CMD, JanaJal said, “We strongly believe that a unified technology platform that connects all water infrastructure and purification systems that allows remote management, monitoring, control and even calibration of the dispensers. The data gathered from every water ATM on technical parameters such as water flow, pressure, temperature, TDS level and conductivity is stored in cloud, analysed and monitored on a 24X7 basis. The information allows us to predict maintenance issues in advance and to optimize the scheduling of engineer visits. This saves money for all concerned stake-holders and increases efficiency across the operations. Our unique technology platform also helped us move from preventive to predictive maintenance. Our partners and respective stake-holders are able view the information through a dedicated portal and a mobile app which helps us in providing fully managed service contracts.”

JanaJal follows a 'Triple A' philosophy of making safe water Available, Accessible and Affordable to all, while keeping technological advancement and implementation at its core. The JanaJal Hybrid Water ATMs also maximize efficiency by utilizing solar energy and regular electricity thereby minimizing downtime due to power outages. This serves as an asset for the smooth expansion to other rural and semi-urban areas as it considers the power limitations of these areas.

Stating about the company’s vision and mission, Parag Agarwal said, “Our mission is to make safe drinking water available to every person at very a nominal cost. Safe drinking water is a basic human requirement, which is essential for good health and subsequent education of the people, and can boost the GDP by upto 6% as stated in a recent article issued by Niti Aayog. Clean drinking water is a medium to deliver health and wellness to communities besides providing gainful employment to individuals, self-help groups, widows and the unemployed. We work closely with NGOs and Charitable Foundations to provide vocational training and upskill individuals by expanding their capabilities. With the Government of India’s emphasis on CSR spending, corporates have developed a renewed focus on safe drinking water as its significance in terms of meeting basic needs of people is clearly understood along with the fact that the social impact being delivered is unparalleled.”

Agarwal is of the opinion that the Government should issue a national level water ATM policy and allocate funds to every State specifically for such projects so that they can be implemented across urban and rural areas besides smart cities and industrial belts. Decentralised water infrastructure is the order of the day and water ATMs are the ideal alternative that besides safe water, also deliver jobs and social entrepreneurship opportunities to people. Debt financing should be made available from nationalised banks for installation and operation of water ATMs to encourage individuals to work as social entrepreneurs and serve communities besides earn a respectable livelihood. It is imperative that drinking water be priced so that it is valued and thereby made available in a consistent and sustainable manner.

Till date, more than 90 million people already impacted through Janajal’s initiative besides eliminating millions of single-use plastic bottles from the environment. The company aims to touch more lives by deploying cutting-edge technology innovation. JanaJal was recently awarded in the Tech Icon category at the recently concluded Safaigiri Awards organized by the India Today Group on Oct 02, 2018 to commemorate Gandhi Jayanti and Swachh Bharat Divas.