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Economically and Environmentally A jeet Prasad from Ramnagar, Uttarakhand works with an NGO called ISARD. Although involved in various other activities through this Delhi based NGO he always wished to do something for his people in Ramnagar, especially with respect to the issue of water quality which was becoming more and more acute with each passing day. He read various studies on water, written with a global and national perspective, which clearly stated that the quality of water was declining everywhere and the number of deaths due to drinking contaminated water was increasing.Over the last 30 years, water
quality has become a major global concern. An esti Hence, in India as in most other developing countries, there is an urgent need for cost effective and low maintenance community level drinking water purification systems. Chlorination, ozonation, resin treatment, UV treatment, electro-dialysis and reverse osmosis are the most commonly used water treatment techniques. All these systems are successful at the individual household levels but they are maintenance intensive. There are very few systems operating at the community level which can effectively purify water to remove pathogenic bacterial contamination along with turbidity. Keeping the above considerations in mind, Development Alternatives (DA) developed a slow sand based filtration system called Jal-TARA for community usage, to prevent the incidence of water borne diseases. A "Water Technology Initiative" supported by the Department of Science and Technology was implemented by DA in Uttarakhand. It has been observed in several studies under this project that in the rural hilly areas there is either a very poor sewage system or none at all. People in the hilly terrain believe that the water from rocky fissures/fractures which emerges as a spring is clean drinkable water. But with increased pollution and also because hilly areas do not have a proper sewage system, this water flows along surfaces which abound in contaminants/pollutants. Hence, when it reaches the source from which people drink, the water is no longer clean. And while the DA team was identifying locations and looking for entrepreneurs with both the social and business perspective to take the project forward, Ajeet came into the picture. He came to know about Jal-TARA and its business potential, and decided to try it. He invited various people such as professors, bankers, hoteliers, NGO representatives and people living nearby to the inauguration of the Jal-TARA filter system in Ramnagar. His initiative was appreciated by everybody. Afterwards he started selling water to banks, offices, tent houses etc. Now Ajeet is all set and ready to sell water on a large scale, to all the Ramnagar residents. He has done his promotion work very thoroughly and proactively, having created the necessary infrastructure keeping in mind the future prospects of his venture. Brand Positioning: "Hill Pure" Ajeet now believes that he has the ability to provide clean drinking water for every man, woman and child in his area. What had been lacking so far was the individual as well as collective will to accomplish this. He has overcome this problem by an adequate planning of the development and a step-by step expansion of his business. He has come up with his brand "Hill Pure" which is now widely accepted by the people in the region. Hence, he is happy and so are the people. q Sachi Singh
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780 million people worldwide drink water from unimproved sources and
millions more drink contaminated water even
from improved sources. Unsafe drinking water along with inadequate
hygiene and sanitation contributes to an estimated 1.9 million annual
deaths, primarily among children under five. In India alone, over 170
million people do not have access to safe drinking water.