Dehradun, Uttarakhand
Sartaj is happy. The 45-year-old peanut seller, who earns a livelihood at Dehradun’s busy bus terminus, does not have to carry water all the way from home like he used to before. Right opposite his stall is a water ATM.
“For a rupee, the ATM pumps a glass of cold filtered water (300 ml), and I get an entire litre for four rupees,” he told Gaon Connection. “For street vendors like me, this ATM is ideal to get safe drinking water,” he added.
Shadab Sheikh finds the water ATM useful too. “The ATM saves me from buying a litre of bottled water for twenty rupees. I often travel to Dehradun from Chhutmalpur, my village, for work and such a facility helps passengers like me afford clean drinking water,” the 58-year-old rice trader from the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh told Gaon Connection. He said he always carried a water bottle with him, which he could refill as many times as he wanted at a nominal cost from the water ATM without having to buy expensive bottled water.
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The ATM design is easy to use and a display board shows the level of total dissolved solids (TDS), water level, pH, and temperature. The design is compact.
As part of the Smart City Dehradun project, under a public-private partnership, 24 water ATMs have been installed at various locations in Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand. During the COVID-19 lockdown last year, 15 water ATMs were already functional, and now all the 24 are dispensing safe drinking water.
After a successful trial, on November 9, earlier this month, these ATMs were officially dedicated to the public by Uttarakhand’s Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, during the 21st Foundation Day celebration of the state. Uttarakhand came into being on November 9, 2000.
Meeting the water demand
Most of these ATMs are installed in busy market places, or areas widely used by the public. For example, there is a water ATM at the railway station exit; one is stationed near Dehradun’s landmark clocktower; and sometimes in residential areas too such as MDDA colony in Dalanwala.
“In Dalanwala, people rely on tankers, borewells, and piped water supply. In summers, the ATM that was installed last year during the lockdown came to the rescue of the slum dwellers of MDDA colony,” Arun Kumar, a 26-year old resident of the colony, told Gaon Connection. People queued to take water at the ATM when water supply in …….