Community water filters provide benefits regarding water quality, health, affordability, and environmental impact, making them a valuable asset for communities striving for better water management.
Access to water quantity (security) and quality (safety) is the biggest challenge being faced today due to rapid modern development activities, climate change impact, and shrinking natural resources. Integrated water management approaches promote co-ordinated development and management of water, land, and related resources. Our initiatives are focused on water conservation, water augmentation, citizen-led water quality monitoring, and creation of new innovative affordable technical solutions.
PANI-WATER, a four-year project has 18 partners led by Dr. Kevin McGuigan from RCSI, Ireland and Dr. Rita Dhodapkar from NEERI, Nagpur. The TARA group represented by Dr. Soumen Maity and the DA Group is represented by Dr. Yogendra Singh Solanki. The project will develop six prototypes out of which five will be deployed in rural and peri-urban areas in India. The field validation of the five technologies, including community engagement and technology integration are being done by the DA Group. The prototypes will be designed to remove Contaminants of Emerging Concerns (CECs) such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products, pesticides and nanoparticles from both drinking water and wastewater. The project team which includes 6 Indian and 12 European partners from six countries viz. Ireland, Spain, Italy, Cyprus and United Kingdom are working closely with the communities at the field sites, and carry out water quality analyses, health and social impact assessments, and advocate for safe reuse of treated wastewater for irrigation, and preservation of drinking water sources. The project is proposed to be implemented in five states of India – Rajasthan, Bihar, Delhi NCR, Goa and Maharashtra.
TARA successfully developed a scalable and replicable business model to provide safe drinking water to the BoP households using a ‘point of use’ water disinfectant, Aqua+.
Basis the success achieved by the project, in terms of providing reliable and affordable access to the marginalized communities, TARA has spawned-off a for-profit company called TARAlife Sustainability Solutions Pvt. Reaching to almost 2500 families