Pentair Provides Safe Drinking Water To Community In Kureb Up
Pentair and Safe Water Network are providing safe drinking water to more than 7,000 residents in Kureb, Uttar Pradesh, India including the neighboring hamlets of Ranhera and Nangla Jahanu.
The lack of clean, affordable water in the Gengetic plain of Uttar Pradesh, India creates a serious public health problem for the region. In Kureb, excess fluoride and high total dissolved solids along with microbial contaminants in local groundwater cause rampant fluorosis and diarrhea. As a result, villagers suffer severe joint pain and other physical disabilities that impair their ability to work. Children’s health is compromised and their growth is stunted, making it impossible to attend school. Young men cannot find brides, as parents do not wish their daughters to marry into households where there are daily struggles to secure supplies of safe water.
The partnership is creating a sustainable, locally owned, market-based model that is providing access to safe water, improving the health and socio-economic conditions in Kureb, as well as testing a commercially viable model that can be replicated to scale across India. The project features a comprehensive demand generation program in the community that promotes hygiene education, supervisory and training activities.
While a baseline study indicated that only 15 percent of the 7,771 households in Kureb would be willing to purchase water, adoption rates have already reached 28%. With increased distribution and demand generation activities over the next year, Safe Water Network expects overall adoption rates to reach 40% in surrounding areas and 75% within 50 meters of the water plant.
The pilot project features Pentair’s Reverse Osmosis (RO) system that addresses the excess fluoride and high microbial contamination found in the local groundwater source. The system effectively removes fluoride thereby making plant maintenance more feasible, especially in rural applications.
This project draws on the considerable knowledge base from Safe Water Network’s initiatives in support of developing decentralized water solutions that address the safe water needs of populations in India, Ghana and Kenya. Safe Water Network’s team’s expertise encompasses technology and system design, operations and logistics, as well as market development.
Based on the success of this initiative, two more plants are being installed in the communities of Charoli and Gharvara. These projects will be governed and supervised with the participation of a local entrepreneur.
About Pentair, Inc. Pentair (www.pentair.com) is a global diversified industrial company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Its Water Group is a global leader in providing innovative products and systems used worldwide to deliver quality drinking water to homes, businesses and communities. In 1998, Pentair established The Pentair Foundation to support the communities in which the company operates. Through local employee-managed councils, the Foundation funds programs that promote education, sustainability in water, and energy and workforce readiness.