Public health: Three districts to get safe water ATMs
Users will be issued cards to claim their daily share of water.
PHOTO: ITU
LAHORE:
The Punjab government is set to introduce solar-powered automated teller machines to provide safe drinking water.
The two-foot-square prototype machine looks and functions like an ATM, but dispenses water instead of cash.
Users would be issued cards to claim their daily share of water. The project, a collaboration between the Punjab Saaf Pani Company and the Innovations for Poverty Alleviation Lab (IPAL), aims to install a water ATM at each water filtration plants in rural and urban.
“The machine is designed to help the government cut water waste and ensure people have access to clean water,” said Jawad Abbasi, a programme manager at IPAL.
“The innovative machines will help the government maintain a record of the quantity of clean drinking water being dispensed at a specific localities, besides ensuring its quality,” he said.
The quality and quantity of water being dispensed would be tracked in real time online, through a central server, he said.
How it works
The devices play an audio message upon authentication of a scanned card, after which they dispense water for the user.
Green and red buttons enable the user to start and stop the flow of water. A flow control meter manages how much water is dispensed, and sensors measure the amount of water still available.
In its first phase, the project will cover Bahawalpur, Rajanpur and Faisalabad. “We are planning to install machines at 20 filtration plants in the first phase that will benefit some 17,500 families,” Abbasi said.
Each family would be entitled to collect 30 litres of water daily from the filtration plants with their identity card, he said.
He said that his organisation was seeking $23,500 aid from the UK Department of International Development to put the prototype into production and install more machines around water filtration plants.
Push to improve water access
According to Punjab Saaf Pani Company, only 13 percent people in rural areas have access to tap water, compared to 43 percent of people in urban areas of the Punjab. The province, with 98 million people, is the country’s most populous.
The government of Punjab aims to provide clean drinking water to over 35 million people by 2017 and Rs20 billion has being allocated for the effort in the upcoming budget, said Muhammad Farasat Iqbal, chief executive officer of Punjab Saaf Pani Company.
“It’s one of the top priorities of the provincial government. Access to clean water is a fundamental human right,” he said.
Iqbal said clean water would be provided free of cost but beneficiary communities would pool in money each month to pay for maintenance of the ATMs and filtration plants.
According to Pakistan’s national drinking water policy, 35 percent of Pakistan’s population doesn’t have access to safe drinking water.
The assessment estimates that diseases related to water, sanitation and hygiene issues cost Pakistan’s economy about Rs112 billion each year in health costs and lost earnings.
Nazir Ahmed Wattoo, an environmental expert with the Punjab Anjuman Samaji Behbood said few water conservation systems are in place in Pakistan, resulting in waste both in daily use and in agriculture.
By regulating and measuring the water used daily in a specific area, he said, the government could better manage the scarce resource.
The real test, he said, would be whether the water dispensing centres were maintained and effectively monitored.
He said the centres also needed to be supported by a concerted national effort to build new water reservoirs. Pakistan’s water storage capacity is currently just 30 days, a quarter of what neighbouring India says is needed.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 15th, 2015.
The Punjab government is set to introduce solar-powered automated teller machines to provide safe drinking water.
The two-foot-square prototype machine looks and functions like an ATM, but dispenses water instead of cash.
Users would be issued cards to claim their daily share of water. The project, a collaboration between the Punjab Saaf Pani Company and the Innovations for Poverty Alleviation Lab (IPAL), aims to install a water ATM at each water filtration plants in rural and urban.
“The machine is designed to help the government cut water waste and ensure people have access to clean water,” said Jawad Abbasi, a programme manager at IPAL.
“The innovative machines will help the government maintain a record of the quantity of clean drinking water being dispensed at a specific localities, besides ensuring its quality,” he said.
The quality and quantity of water being dispensed would be tracked in real time online, through a central server, he said.
How it works
The devices play an audio message upon authentication of a scanned card, after which they dispense water for the user.
Green and red buttons enable the user to start and stop the flow of water. A flow control meter manages how much water is dispensed, and sensors measure the amount of water still available.
In its first phase, the project will cover Bahawalpur, Rajanpur and Faisalabad. “We are planning to install machines at 20 filtration plants in the first phase that will benefit some 17,500 families,” Abbasi said.
Each family would be entitled to collect 30 litres of water daily from the filtration plants with their identity card, he said.
He said that his organisation was seeking $23,500 aid from the UK Department of International Development to put the prototype into production and install more machines around water filtration plants.
Push to improve water access
According to Punjab Saaf Pani Company, only 13 percent people in rural areas have access to tap water, compared to 43 percent of people in urban areas of the Punjab. The province, with 98 million people, is the country’s most populous.
The government of Punjab aims to provide clean drinking water to over 35 million people by 2017 and Rs20 billion has being allocated for the effort in the upcoming budget, said Muhammad Farasat Iqbal, chief executive officer of Punjab Saaf Pani Company.
“It’s one of the top priorities of the provincial government. Access to clean water is a fundamental human right,” he said.
Iqbal said clean water would be provided free of cost but beneficiary communities would pool in money each month to pay for maintenance of the ATMs and filtration plants.
According to Pakistan’s national drinking water policy, 35 percent of Pakistan’s population doesn’t have access to safe drinking water.
The assessment estimates that diseases related to water, sanitation and hygiene issues cost Pakistan’s economy about Rs112 billion each year in health costs and lost earnings.
Nazir Ahmed Wattoo, an environmental expert with the Punjab Anjuman Samaji Behbood said few water conservation systems are in place in Pakistan, resulting in waste both in daily use and in agriculture.
By regulating and measuring the water used daily in a specific area, he said, the government could better manage the scarce resource.
The real test, he said, would be whether the water dispensing centres were maintained and effectively monitored.
He said the centres also needed to be supported by a concerted national effort to build new water reservoirs. Pakistan’s water storage capacity is currently just 30 days, a quarter of what neighbouring India says is needed.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 15th, 2015.