Danish firm Grundfos plans water dispensing system in India.

Vending machines that dispense clean drinking water at the touch of a prepaid card - that is the new business model for entrepreneurs that Grundfos Lifelink A/S plans to support in India.

This is part of a global initiative that has been field tested in Africa and is now being launched on a commercial scale in India.

Grundfos Lifelink, a group company of Danish pump manufacturer Grundfos A/S, hopes to provide decentralised drinking water supply system through local entrepreneurs. This will give people in the emerging countries access to clean drinking water, create livelihood and prevent wastage.

Addressing a group of journalists on a visit to Grundfos’ headquarters located in this town about 250 km from Copenhagen, Peter Todbjerg Hansen, Managing Director, Grundfos Lifelink, said the global assembly of Grundfos AQpure, the ultra-filtration unit, and AQtap, the water dispensers, will be in India.

Grundos India will handle the assembling unit about 50 km south of Chennai at Marg Swarnabhoomi SEZ. The facility can assemble about 100 UF units of 1-2 cubic metres per hour each, annually. These can also be solar-powered for remote locations. It hopes to create a network of 8,500 dispensers over five years.

Grundfos will also provide technology and service back up. The company has developed the units in-house at a low cost.

Grundfos Lifelink has tied up with eKutir, a social enterprise providing solutions to low income communities in India, to identify urban and rural locations. Local entrepreneurs will be franchisees setting up outlets. These can also be used in large apartment blocks. Grundfos will also provide the IT backup for the projects to enable transparency in payments. Customers can top up prepaid cards through mobile phones. The company plans to launch it in January, when the price will also be announced. Hansen said the systems can be a part of the utility, an independent network or standalone kiosks, he said. Grundfos only sells the equipment and provides back up, but the water is sold by the entrepreneur or entity handling the water business.

HBL