JanaJal eyes a thousand water ATMs in one year

JanaJal, a for-profit water utility, is aiming to install a thousand water ATMs by March 2018, founder Parag Agarwal has said.

This three-year-old social enterprise has till date deployed about 40 water ATMs and is on track to installing 39 more at various Railway stations in Mumbai as part of an IRCTC initiative.

These vending machines are for that 97 per cent of the population which cannot afford bottled offerings but is keen on safety, too.

JanaJal recently received a $5-million funding commitment from US-based Tricolour Cleantech Capital, a social impact fund focussed on clean technologies.

“We have already received the first tranche and as we keep achieving milestones, more money will flow in,” said Agarwal, who hopes to ride on the increased acceptability of the water ATM concept both among consumers and administrators.

In all, JanaJal has around 250 safe water dispensing points.

A safe water dispensing point is mostly a CSR initiative and does not have any payment interface (free water for consumers). Until now, the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) model was the only way to enable community level drinking water.

Gradually it has evolved to the ATM concept because of sustainability.

“Sustainability starts where philanthropy ends. Safe drinking water has to be valued as a resource and hence priced,” said Agarwal.

JanaJal has also signed an agreement with the Ghaziabad Development Authority and will roll out from April 1, 33 water ATMs at bus-stands, hospitals and public locations with high footfall, said Sudhir Sharma, Advisor, Global Strategy for Supremus Developers, the company that operates JanaJal.

“Our aspiration is to put one million water ATMs out there,” Sharma said.

For ₹5, a consumer at Ghaziabad will be able to get 20 litres of safe drinking water. At the water ATMs, all forms of payments are being enabled including prepaid card and digital wallets.

“You can pay using BHIM app, Bharat QR code or via any UPI interface,” Agarwal said.

JanaJal is also building an ecosystem of collateral benefits around its water ATMs. “We also provide gainful employment opportunities to people as every ATM is manned. The more they sell, the more money they make as they get a revenue share,” he said.

Agarwal said that plans are afoot to popularise the concept of a prepaid JanaJal water card, which can be used across all water ATMs.

“Post demonetisation, we were directed (by IRCTC) to enable all forms of payments other than cash. So we have had to revamp our backend to migrate to less cash system,” he said.

JanaJal is also eyeing corporate houses for the growth of its water ATMs. Its first corporate client is Essar’s Hazira plant, where three water ATMs have been installed.

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