First community-run water system in Andhra Pradesh to go live today

WaterHealth India, which has won a concession by the government of the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh to run community water systems in five of the state's 23 districts on a (build, own, operate and transfer) BOOT basis, will make its first project site live by March 1.

The company was one of the five selected from 40 companies that had sought to provide safe and clean drinking water to a large majority of villagers across the state at affordable prices.

WaterHealth India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of US-based WaterHealth International Inc, provides purified water through its water purification centers, called WaterHealth Centers. The company will create necessary infrastructure, maintain and run the WaterHealth Centers for the next 10 years.

The company will provide Community Water Systems in at least one village per mandal in the districts of Medak, Rangareddy, East Godavari, West Godavari and Srikakulam covering over 220 mandals. The four sites -- Nagaram, Tholeru, Kanuru and G. Vemavaram -- will start selling purified water to more than 100,000 consumers living in the vicinity of these plants.

As per plans, a total of 220 centers will be installed by WaterHealth in this year under the project. Overall, WaterHealth India envisages that more than 3 million people will be served by its projects.

The move is part of the efforts being initiated by the state government to improve rural water supply and sanitation services. Thousands of people in several villages across the state have been suffering from serious health problems including diarrhoea and typhoid due to lack of potable water and accessing contaminated groundwater.

The state government had released a tender and sought participation of companies for providing safe and clean drinking water to a large majority of villagers at affordable prices. Overall 1,100 mandals comprising of all districts will be covered, impacting a cross section of over 10 million people in the rural areas.

WaterHealth International, which has presence in countries like Ghana, the Philippines and Sri Lanka helps, has experince in serving remote and underserved communities get access to safe drinking water by involving the local community in setting up low-cost water purification plants. The customers pay a nominal charge for the water they use.