Now, an ATM for water

Swati Rai

At the centre of Amrutdhara is a modular water-vending machine that will help reduce the enormous amount of plastic waste in our streets; landfills and water bodies, helping India get one step closer to our goal of being swachh bharat. 

Akshay and Min are presently at the testing stage for modular system of dispensing safe affordable drinking water. They have already got a distribution network and manufacturing partners in place. Both come from diverse backgrounds, Min spent his early career in management consulting and finance in the UK with IBM and others. Since his return to India in 2007, he has worked in a number of sustainability-related areas and consulting assignments, including renewable energy, agriculture, waste management, environmental education and development of social enterprises in rural India. It was during his many travels in India that he was stumped at the paucity of unpackaged clean drinking water in rural as well as urban areas.

Akshay is an industrial designer and design researcher, and has worked in the areas of renewable energy, sanitation and hygiene among others. One of his most challenging and rewarding projects was working as a project manager for the multi-stakeholder Bill & Melinda Gates Project, Project Sammaan, on sanitation, during his time at Quicksand Design Studio.

Troubled by the lack of eco-friendly easy availability of unpackaged pure drinking water in public places, the duo set out to look for alternatives. Operating from Auroville, Pondicherry, they have come out with a prototype of a machine. Akshay elaborates, “We have a bubble top model and another one that works like a water purifier attached to the supply. Think of it as a water ATM, where you push the money in and out comes pure water without the attendant plastic waste.” 

How does then one ensure quality of the water, especially in public places? Akshay answers, “There are embedded sensors, in the machine with the help of which we are able to assure that every drop of water that passes through our vending machine into a bottle or glass has been purified. If the water doesn’t pass our standards, we shut the machine down, and trigger maintenance and investigations into the failure. All our data is run through algorithms in the cloud, through which we keep a vigilant eye on our machines.”

The focus is now on the “communication of quality of the water through implicit and explict to spread awareness about the ease and efficacy of using this system.”

Having got a functional prototype of the water purification machine, Amrutdhara’s pilot project is underway in Auroville and Mahabalipuram. Akshay is quite optimistic of its future, “We have won a design residency programme by Villgrow and that sustained our project financially, however, as with any other strat-up funding is alsways a challenge so for this we are seeking financial assistance on indiegogo.” All we can say let the love flow to support this cause.