Today, when there is a severe water crisis and drinking water shortage everywhere, coupled with a big question mark on the quality of drinking water, Navin Gupta, a social entrepreneur and founder of a startup, called Hydrotec Solutions, is working passionately on drinking water technologies. He has come up with IoT sensor-based SmartWater ATMs under the brand name, Arosia, to promote clean and safe drinking water.
What is a Water ATM?
A Water ATM is a kiosk with an in-built water filtration system fitted with IoT (Internet of Things)-based sensors to capture real-time water quality parameters.
IoT is also being used for automatic collection of money in the form of coins, cards or payment wallets for dispensing water.
Are Water ATMs getting popular?
Research says this is a new concept in India and is now being adopted by many urban and rural government departments, Smart City missions and so on.
Features of the Water ATM
Packaged water is currently growing at a CAGR of 29%, but water at ATMs comes for 30 paise per litre.
A SmartWater ATM is fully automatic and does not require a caretaker
Sensors trigger an alarm in case the water quality deteriorates; the kiosks run on solar power.
Free from arsenic and other contamination.
Recently, 10 ATMs have been installed in Agartala, Tripura, under the Smart City mission.
Water ATMs can be a solution to providing affordable, clean drinking water for communities and can prevent water-borne diseases. They can be used as an additional tool to support the total drinking water demand in any area — urban or rural.
