COIMBATORE: Anuj Sharma, COO of Sarvajal, a firm that sells water, was in town to receive the Force Park Shared Value Award from the Park Group of Institutions on Wednesday. His firm purifies ground water and sells it through water ATMs.

“Pure water can easily be made available at a lower cost,” said Anuj. He had started the project 4 years ago in his home town of Alwar in Rajasthan. His water is now available in a few states as of now. The purified water is supplied through tanks from where people can collect it using their ATMs. “A litre of water will cost a maximum of 50 paise. The ATM which is similar to those used to withdraw money from banks can be recharged using cards. They will show the quality of water apart from the balance available.

“We target places where there are ground water sources, but lack quality water distribution. There should be a minimum of 1,000 households in the area,” he said. ‘Water ATM’ was a concept they developed to monitor the distribution of the water and check its quality.

“Around 50 percent of diseases are water borne diseases. At the same time, most water purifiers are either inefficient or costly. Thus, I came up with this idea,” he said. Responding to charges of commercialisation of water resources, he says they make sure their business model is affordable to all.