Swipe smart card for water, ATM for filtered water

KANPUR: Do you fear drinking water from the public taps everytime you move out of your home? If yes then, you need not to worry now, as you may soon be able to swipe a card at a water ATM to take water just as you take money from a regular ATM. The water ATM installed at Nanarao Park is all set to make a splash in the city in hot summers. The water vending machine was inaugurated by district magistrate Roshan Jacob during an event here on Tuesday.
Known locally as `Water ATMs', the dispensers use pre-paid smart cards, allowing people to fill containers up to 20 litre for Rs 5 only. It is an initiative of Akash Jal organisation that has installed the machine in collaboration with the district administration under the CSR funding.
“Water ATMs is the initiative Akash Jal organisation under CSR funding. It is a remarkable effort by the organisation. Now people will get cold filtered water 24 hours by paying just a meager amount,” said the district magistrate.
Much like how an ATM works, a customer swipes a prepaid card, following which the dispenser's screen flashes the chosen amount for which the user wishes to collect water. A main server keeps record of the user's transactions and deducts the amount from the prepaid card. The water that is received by the customer is properly filtered and is as per norms of WHO.
“A person can get a prepaid card from the water station itself. One can bring his own water bottle from home or can buy a bottle from the station,” said Vaibhav Bajpai, founder of Akshay Jal. He said that this is the second water ATM installed in the city adding they are planning to install more such water ATMs in different localities of the city which has high footfall. These areas include Fazalganj, saket Nagar and Naubasta.
“The first station was installed last year in Indira Nagar area. It is working fine benefiting nearly 1000 users. Rest of the three machines will be installed in maximum two months time,” he said.