The number of patients suffering gastroenteritis has reduced sharply in Mandavgan Pharata, a small village in Pune district. This transformation in public health happened after villagers started drinking clean water provided by a small firm,  Waterlife India.

The Hyderabad-based firm has installed water purification systems in more than 1,700 villages and urban areas covering 2.5 million people. “We have developed cost-effective water treatment technologies, that can address complex combinations of water contamination,” said  KP Ranjan, one of the co-founders and director at Waterlife. “This enables us to sell 20 litres of drinking water for Rs 5- 7,” he added.

The company’s business model partners with local government, health workers and citizen groups who drive the awareness for clean drinking water. “Last week, Waterlife was among 15 winners of the G20 challenge on inclusive business innovation, at the G20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico,” said Sudesh Menon, CEO and co-founder, Waterlife India. Initially, the company had limited resources to scale up. It received Rs 1 crore from social venture fund Aavishkaar and working capital from the apex rural lender, Nabard.

Seeing the success of the business model, the USbased venture capital firm Matrix Partner injected Rs 22 crore in December last year. Waterlife aims to reach to 25 million customers in India and South Asia over the next three years.

source: http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com / Home> News> Emerging Business> Startups / by Peerzada Abrar, ET Bureau / June 25th, 2012