An alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur has set up water ATMs to provide water to the common man at cheap rates.
Though such ATMs themselves are not the first of their kind, being found in China already, they are quite the novelty in India.
Vaibhav Bajpayee, an I.I.T. alumnus and the founder of Akshay Jal ATMs, aims to provide clean mineral water to the less fortunate at cheap rates.
"A commodity like mineral water is available only to the upper sections of the society because of its high cost. So we designed the water ATM in a way that would provide water to the lower strata as well," said Bajpayee.
The water ATM works like any other cash dispensing one. The water ATM card is touched upon a panel on the machine which then dispenses water into a container.
Water at these ATMs is available at a low cost of rupees five for 20 litres while mineral water costs from rupees 12-15 per litre otherwise.
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Though the technology itself has been taken from China, the filtration facility at the ATM's plant is made up using Indian parts. Around 1,500 litres of water take one hour to be processed in the plant.
"The whole plant has 11 filtration units. After going through these 11 units, the water is dispensed through the ATM. We aim to take this invention into rural areas. But since there is a problem of electricity there, we have set up solar systems to run our plant," said ATM plant in-charge, Anuj Kaushik.
The ATM also offers home delivery service at rupees 10 per delivery.