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“It’s heartening to see how these new WaterHealth Centers are transforming communities by improving family health, work attendance, reducing school absenteeism, and improving the overall quality of life,” said US Ambassador to India Richard R Verma.
He was speaking after a visit to the WaterHealth Centre at Lingarajpuram here. “So far, the US government has supported the establishment of nine active Clean Water Centres, each serving at least 350 households daily. We are poised to support the Municipal Corporation and its partner, WaterHealth India, to scale up these water centers from nine wards to 25 by May 2016, with a goal of eventually serving all of the wards in Bengaluru,” Verma said.
Later, he interacted with people in the neighbourhood who benefit from the US-supported project.
BeneficiariesIn Lingarajpuram and surrounding areas, water supply was previously intermittent and unclean. Today, 8,000 households have access to clean drinking water. Families are now able to purchase clean water at one-sixth the cost (₹5 for 20 litres) they previously paid to procure water from the retail market.
At the WaterHealth Centre, raw water pumped from the ground undergoes a six-stage treatment process and the final product meets the World Health Organization standards.
Vikas Shah, Chief Operating Officer, WaterHealth International, demonstrated the impact of this innovative system.
Future plans“The ambassador’s visit highlights the importance of providing safe drinking water to the urban poor,” he said. “Building on this partnership with USAID and Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), WaterHealth ultimately plans to scale up its footprint and provide safe water to over 100 million people in India by 2020. In the future, we plan to partner with various other urban local bodies in Karnataka and other States.”
Going forward, the BBMP will continue to provide the infrastructure (land, water source, and electricity connection) for the 25 WaterHealth Centers that will be constructed and run by WaterHealth India based on the current Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model, a proven success. WaterHealth India aims to continually expand the technology to cover all 198 wards in Bengaluru.
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