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Sustainable Development

Low-Cost Water Is Hard Sell in Delhi Colony

by The Daily Eye Team May 29 2014, 11:48 am Estimated Reading Time: 1 min, 3 secs

India — In October last year, the resettlement colony of Sawda Ghevra, tucked away in the north-western outskirts of India’s capital, became the site of an urban experiment. The colony lacking well-established water pipelines, residents have for years depended on the water tankers supplied once a day by the Delhi Jal Board, the municipal body. So the residents were surprised at seeing the commissioning of a decentralized drinking water facility along with 11 automatic vending machines, also known as water A.T.M.s that provided water on a pay-per-use basis in their colony. Residents could bring their own canisters and fill up as much as they wanted, paying the equivalent of about two United States cents per liter with rechargeable prepaid smart cards. The water A.T.M.s were a supplemental effort on the part of the Delhi Jal Board and Sarvajal, a social enterprise supported by the Piramal Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Piramal Group, to ensure that the residents of the colony had round-the-clock access to clean drinking water. Yet six months after the pilot project began, the response from residents has been lukewarm: Only 950 households have paid the $1.70 fee for a smart card among the estimated 8,500 households in the colony.

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