One of the first few things I tend to do when I wake up in the morning is washing my face, brushing my teeth, and probably drinking a glass of water. Only lately I have realized how lucky and privileged I am to follow such simple routines. 

Worldwide, one in three people do not have access to safe drinking water, two out of five people do not have a basic hand-washing facility with soap and water, and more than 673 million people still practise open defecation. 

While there are several reasons for these inequities, most of them are complex and systemic. Ensuring equal access to potable water at a large scale will take serious innovation and collaboration. But as we see over and over, despite these obstacles, it’s social entrepreneurs who are on the front lines deploying solutions. 

Here are a few organizations ensuring water and sanitation is accessible in remote communities. 

PurePaani

PurePaani is an India-based social enterprise on a mission to make clean drinking water available to all. Several people in India lack access to safe water as 70% of groundwater is contaminated due to sewage and industrial pollutants. 

PurePaani offers a variety of portable purification products, including a hand pump (pictured below), battery pump, or water tablet. PurePaani also offers consulting services to help manage and sustain the whole cycle of a water intervention project.

WaterWalla

This is a cleantech startup that works on a franchise business model where it helps entrepreneurs to establish micro-businesses that sell and distribute POU technologies from companies such as Bajaj, Eureka Forbes and TATA. WaterWalla is on a mission to improve access to clean water for underserved communities worldwide, WaterWalla is a go-to platform for clean water entrepreneurs to scale their impact.

They work with partners to develop and identify affordable purification technologies and promote them through their resource network. Finally, they also introduce various solutions in communities and empower them through entrepreneurship, education and links to technology partners.

NextDrop 

This startup tackles the problem of water scarcity by tracking water supply for utilities. The Bangalore-based platform informs its users at what time water will be supplied in their area, if there are any delays, and most importantly if there is a cancellation by using a mobile phone. Consumers can accordingly plan appropriately.

NextDrop believes that connecting citizens, government bodies and the private sector to actionable, real-time information can change water supply systems.

Taraltec Disinfection Reactor

Anjan Mukherjee, a former marine chief engineer, has developed the Taraltec Disinfection Reactor, a ‘fit and forget’ device, which converts contaminated water from borewell hand pumps at the source to clean water, by killing 99% of the microbes present in it.

The device converts the kinetic energy of the fluid into millions of targeted microbubbles, each acting as localized reactors. This generates extreme heat, pressure and turbulence that release intense energy packets during the collapse of bubbles. The resultant shockwave, marked by a bang sound, lacerates and kills the microbes. 

The water, which is 99% safer than it was earlier, then emerges from the borewell or pump into the hands of those drawing it.