The Value of Thirst

As the country grapples with poor water management, polluted water bodies, shortage of drinking water and water-borne diseases, businesses and entrepreneurs are coming up with unique solutions to quench the thirst of the people. Business Today profiles a few promising initiatives that could prove to be game-changers.

VISHVARAJ INFRASTRUCTURE

 

Nagpur was no different from the rest of India when it came to water mismanagement. "These inefficiencies clubbed with low tariff made the urban water distribution unsustainable," says Arun Lakhani, Chairman, Vishvaraj Infrastructure. So, when Nagpur Municipal Corporation issued tenders for 24x7 water supply in the city and another project at Bhandewadi for water reuse, Lakhani bid for both projects. For the Rs 550-crore 24x7 water supply project the company is supposed to provide continuous water supply to every household, improve the technical and commercial efficiency of the system, lay 2,100 km of pipelines, set up a water treatment facility and storage reservoirs, apart from providing 325,000 new house service connections. It is also responsible for metering, billing and collection of charges. "We carried out our hydraulic modelling of the city and, now, all households in Nagpur are getting at least three to four hours of daily water supply."

PIRAMALSARVAJAL

 In a country where 125 million people do not have access to drinking water, Sarvajal's ATMs cater to 300,000 people every day at 30 paisa per litre of potable water. Since its launch in 2009, the company has installed over 180 water units across 13 states. "All one has to do is swipe the prepaid card and key in the amount required, and the machine dispenses the water. The Sarvajal server keeps a record of user transactions and deducts the amount used on the card," says Vasu Padmanabhan, CEO, Piramal Sarvajal. The company has got into partnerships with local entrepreneurs, panchayats and community-based organisations to run the water treatment plants. "Local community members are selected and trained to manage the purification units. The projects are also monitored remotely on a daily basis to ensure production and purity, and understand the consumption pattern for remedial action," he adds. The ATM units cost Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, and the local partners can also earn up to Rs 35,000 per month. The plant works on reverse osmosis and UV-based filtration technology.

WATERLIFE INDIA 

Sudesh Menon, who was tipped to take over as the South East Asia head of GE, quit the company to later launch Waterlife India in partnership with two former colleagues - Mohan Ranbaore and Indranil Das - in 2009. So far, the Hyderabad-based company has installed over 4,000 water purification plants to quench the thirst of over 12 million people across 15 states. Waterlife focuses on community water systems in villages and urban slums, and works in collaboration with governments, local bodies and corporate houses. Menon says that sustainability is key while providing high quality water over the long-term (five to 15 years), compared to systems that go defunct after the first year "due to poor maintenance or apathy". A Waterlife team first visits the village to map its drinking water requirements, analyses the viability and tests sources of water for contamination. Based on the findings, a customised plant is built. It costs anything between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 25 lakh. Operators are hired to operate and maintain the plant after rigorous training. "We expect to maintain revenue growth of 30-40 per cent per annum over the next five years," says Menon, adding that the World Bank's recognition of Waterlife as one of the pioneers in the provision of safe water in the bottom-of-the-pyramid market was a rewarding experience.

KENT RO

When Mahesh Gupta failed to get a quality water purifier for his children diagnosed with jaundice, he decided to make one himself. "Purifiers primarily work on the Ultra Violet principle, wherein the water passes through UV rays and the bacteria are killed in the process. For me, that was not enough because industrial activity has resulted in contaminated ground water, and impurities such as arsenic, rust, pesticides and fluorides," says Gupta, Chairman, KENT RO Systems. After several trials, he zeroed in on the reverse osmosis (RO) technology and the first KENT purifier was launched in March 1999 from his garage in South Delhi. In the first year he sold around 100 units for Rs 20,000 a piece, compared to the Rs 5,000 price tag of other available water purifiers in the market. Gupta claims, KENT RO now enjoys 40 per cent share of the RO market and is looking at Rs 1,000-crore turnover in 2016/17.

This New is Originally Posted on BusinessToday

Pune firm’s water management plan gets a thumbs up

Arun Lakhani, CMD, Vishvaraj Infrastructure Ltd

Pune: A city-based organisation's water management plan is among the four projects selected by the Centre and the European Union (EU) for study and implementation.

The city is hosting a three-day international conference on 'Water Management & Waste Water Treatment' will address acute water shortage and water management issues and delve on workable technologies for sewage treatment. The conference is organized by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ecosan, and supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, and the EU.

City-based EcoSan Services Foundation's water management plan, 'NaWaTech', is one of the four projects selected by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India and EU. The project was showcased at Yashada on Thursday, the first day of the international conference.

The four projects that were showcased at the conference were selected under the framework of the India-European Union Science & Technology research and innovation project in water technology and management.

"With more people migrating to cities, water resources are dwindling. Hence, It has become mandatory to go for waste water treatment as the situation will only worsen. We have to look at shifting from the conventional approach. Research and innovation should be our constant endeavour," said Girish Bapat, the city's guardian minister of Pune.

"India pumps out almost 80% sewage out of the total water supplied. We can treat at least 60% of this. This water can be used for construction, gardening, etc," said Arun Lakhani, chairman and managing director of Vishvaraj Infrastructure, India, which has implemented the 24x7 water scheme in Nagpur using a public private partnership model.

The four projects showcased are NaWaTech, Eco India, Swings and Saraswati. They focus on various water treatment and management technologies developed and implemented by various research institutes. The projects are jointly funded by both DST-GOI and the European Commission. They were selected on the basis of minimum maintenance, low energy consumption, large scope to scale up and cost effectiveness.

"For the water-based projects, Rs 16mn funding has been provided jointly by DST and EU. Both the Indian and European consortiums will work jointly on these projects to assess and enhance the potential of natural and technical water treatment systems to suit local conditions," said Arvind Kumar, scientist-E of the International Multilateral and Regional Cooperation department, in DST-GOI.

NaWaTech, which stands for Natural Water Systems and Treatment Technologies, is a three-year collaborative project. It works under a consortium of seven European organizations and universities and seven Indian members, headed by NEERI which also includes the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). "NaWaTech is based on optimized use of surface water supply, rain water, storm water as well as grey water," said DB Panse, director Ecosan Services Foundation.

As per Panse added, NaWaTech's largest project has been implemented at the College of Engineering Pune campus. The second site where NaWaTech has been implemented is the 400-acre towship, Amanora Park Town.

Mangesh Dighe, head of environment cell head of PMC, said, "One such system has been installed at the Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran office in Pune. The water will supplied to the Indradhanushya centre, Sachin Tendulkar Park and a public toilet near Ambil odha." He also said that the PMC environment cell with the garden department will visit areas of the city to see which river, nullah and lake can be tapped for wastewater treatment project.

This News is Originally Posted on TIME OF INDIA

Vishvaraj Infrastructure adjudged best PPP operator in Water and Waste Water Sector

Nagpur: While whole of Maharashtra is facing acute shortage of water this summer, Marathwada being worst affected, Nagpur is in much better situation.

Gone are the days when citizens used to try all their sources to get tanker water in their apartments in large number of localities. The change was possible by the organized efforts of Orange City Water (OCW) which is responsible for water supply in the city. The efforts of Vishvaraj which is one of the promoting companies of OCW were recognized at the highest level.

Vishvaraj has been named the most successful PPP operator in water and waste water sector at the Water Digest Water Awards (WDWA) 2015–16. These awards are recognized by UNESCO and supported by Times Network. Arun Lakhani, Chairman and Managing Director of Vishvaraj Infrastructure Ltd, received the award in a ceremony in New Delhi from Chaudhary Birender Singh, Minister of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India.

Also present on the occasion were the jury panel members Dr. Pawan Kumar Labhasetwar – Sr.Principal Scientist, CSIR – NEERI, Anshuman – TERI (Associate Director), R.K. Gupta – CMD – WABCOS, Dr KM Chacko – Director Sriram Institute, Satish Mallick, Consultant – Water and Waste Water, Dr. Ram Bhoojh – UNESCO, Dr. Jagdish Kumar Bassin – Retd Chief Scientist & Head, CSIR – NEERI.

Speaking on the occasion Lakhani said, “We at Vishvaraj Infrastructure are honored to receive this prestigious recognition. We dedicate this award to the people of Nagpur, Officials of Nagpur Municipal Corporation and also the politicians from the city cutting across the party lines, who cooperated with us in bringing the change in the water supply system in Nagpur. We have tried our best to communicate with the people through various mediums and we will continue to do so. We have still not achieved our goal but are on the right path of reaching there. People will appreciate that the project of this size and nature is not attempted anywhere in India so far and we are privileged to do it first time in Nagpur. We have wonderful people in the city who have supported us so far and we need your continued support for few more years and we assure you the best of the class water supply system in the country. We wish to receive all of your ideas and suggestions which will guide us to perform better.”

It is worth mentioning here that the “Nagpur 24×7 water supply project through PPP mode” was also selected as “National Best Practice of India” and was appreciated by the Prime Minister in front of 500 mayors and commissioners during inauguration of Smart City and AMRUT scheme on 25th June 2015.

“Best Water and Waste Water PPP operator award” is another feather in the cap for the Nagpur based company and it is bringing Nagpur on the National and International map by showcasing its path breaking initiatives. Representatives of the many multi-national companies and city planners across India are regular visitors of Nagpur water projects and appreciate the efforts of the NMC and the company.

This News is Originally Posted on NAGPUR TODAY

Vishvaraj Infrastructure’s Arun Lakhani bags 2 prestigious awards at World Water Leadership Congress

Nagpur/Mumbai: Vishvaraj Infrastructure Ltd, which is heading Orange City Waters – Nagpur’s core Water Supply Manager, has managed to bring some moments of proud to the city. In the recently held World Water Leadership Congress and Awards in Mumbai, the company headed by Arun Lakhani has managed to make the cut with two prestigious awards.

While Arun Lakhani, Chairman and Managing Director, Vishvaraj Infrastructure Ltd has been individually honoured with World Water Leadership Awards for his Outstanding Contribution towards Water, his company Vishvaraj Infrastructure bagged the award for Best Water Reuse Project.

Overwhelmed with the double honor, Arun Lakhani shared his warm greetings with Nagpur Today.

Talking to the e-newspaper, Lakhani congratulated his team saying, “This award is the recognition of my team’s hard work which put in their efforts. Its never a one person, its a team work – Satyajeet, Suresh and all of them. My congratulations to them.”

This New is Originally Posted on Nagpur Today