For the previous 15 years, Chennai’s Supriya Sethuram has been depending on water cans for her day by day consuming water wishes. Then again, the native providers of those cans would frequently ship grimy or cloudy cans at house.
As a mom of 2 youngsters elderly 11 and 9, she used to be involved concerning the high quality of water she presented her youngsters to drink.
“We’re compelled to meet our day by day consuming wishes from those cans as the faucet water right here isn’t blank. However whether or not I can be provided with a blank can or a nasty one would rely at the inventory that the shopkeeper receives,” the 40-year-old tells The Higher India.
Bored to death with this case, the entrepreneur went to the spot the place those water cans have been unloaded. “I discovered that the entire cans have been irresponsibly thrown round. Chennai is a extremely popular position. When plastic cans are left out of doors within the warmth, they move unhealthy making the water, or any content material, undeserving for intake,” she provides.
Kind of six months again, upon her buddy’s advice, she switched to the use of water cans by means of ‘BookWater’. The corporate is likely one of the first IoT (Web of Issues)-powered and quality-based water supply platform on the earth that permits customers to scan the QR code on its water cans and get information about the standard of cans.
“It me as a result of by means of merely scanning the QR code, you’ll be able to know main points on how again and again the can has been used to this point. I don’t suppose every other corporate does that,” she says.
At the back of this innovation are brothers Bharath Govindaraghavan and Balachander G. Together with their buddies, Hariharan Vedamurthy and Sameer Bharat Ram, they co-founded BookWater. The startup delivers about 50,000 water cans with QR codes each and every month throughout Chennai.
What you swig from a plastic can
Balachander is a graduate in environmental legislation from the Nationwide Legislation College of India, Bengaluru, while Bharath is an electronics engineer by means of occupation. After running with a number of corporations, the Chennai-based brothers were given in combination to paintings within the water house this is ruled by means of unorganised gamers within the nation.
In dialog with The Higher India, Balachander (46) says, “In Chennai, persons are depending on water tanks for his or her day by day water wishes because the groundwater may be very polluted or it’s so saline that it’s tough to make use of.”
He provides, “On a daily basis, greater than 25 lakh cans of 20-litre capability are bought in Chennai. Even the poorest listed here are depending on water cans that value Rs 35-45. However nobody truly is aware of the standard of water and of those cans.”
“Those plastic water cans also are overused. You don’t seem to be meant to reuse those water cans past a undeniable extent and then, they begin to lose their transparency. However, a majority of cans you spot available in the market shall be totally clouded,” he explains.
“This occurs because of the cans being left underneath the solar. The UV rays damage the plastic into smaller debris which, in flip, sheds copious quantities of microplastics into the water,” he provides.
A UNDP article finds that microplastics were present in faucet water, in addition to bottled water. Those compounds are related to severe well being problems equivalent to endocrine disruption, weight acquire, insulin resistance, reduced reproductive well being, most cancers, amongst others.
“The knowledge is horrifying. In line with our analysis, we understood that those cans will have to be disposed of after 40 occasions of use. Publish that, they begin dropping their structural integrity. However the issue is, the way to resolve the selection of occasions the can has been used? There’s no monitoring, there’s no marker,” says Bala.
In the meantime, Bharath (43) issues out that individuals have come to simply accept those grimy cans as is. No person truly questions it. “Will you drink Ganga river’s water from a rest room bucket? No. Likewise, now we have authorized that those grimy plastic water cans are just right.”
The brothers sought after to make use of IoT tech to unravel those issues and that’s when their “attached cans” idea used to be born. In 2020, the siblings introduced BookWater and have been joined by means of Sameer and Hariharan a few yr later.
What does the QR do
So the brothers manufacture ISI (Indian Requirements Establishment)-rated plastic cans the place they stick a QR code on each and every can. “We have now IoT sensors within the copackers’ places. Our sensors observe the standard of water and the place it’s crammed. For those who order a can throughout the BookWater app, you’ll be able to scan the QR code and high quality experiences shall be visual to you,” says Bharath.
“This code then means that you can monitor the motion of the can from the copacker to the client location. It tells the entire high quality parameters – proper from how again and again the can has been reused, the producing date of the can, calcium, magnesium, TDS (General Dissolved Solids), to the PH-levels of the water as neatly,” he explains.
Bala says that each and every can is scanned until it’s upcycled. After the use of the can as much as 30 occasions, the startup upcycles it into helpful merchandise like t-shirts.
For this, they have got collaborated with corporations equivalent to Ecoline, which recycles plastic bottles into sustainable clothes equivalent to jackets, blazers, T-shirts, and bottoms.
As of now, BookWater is catering to three,000 customers throughout Chennai however targets to enlarge products and services to Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, and Kolkata by means of the following two years.
Any other Chennai resident, Shardha, who has been depending on water cans for the previous 13 years, tells The Higher India, “With the assistance of the QR code-tracking, the probabilities of the rest going improper within the procedure of having blank water are nil.”
“As we do with different packing containers in our kitchen, we should change our water packing containers too,” she provides.
She is going on to mention, “Previous, once we used to get the ones grimy cans in the neighborhood, the water would even style other. Every time my youngsters would fall unwell, we’d get started boiling the water earlier than the use of it as I used to be no longer assured of its high quality.”
“The BookWater cans don’t seem to be most effective blank but additionally the water high quality stays undisturbed. We have now spotted that we don’t get unwell within the wet season now,” she provides.
A deep sense of pride
Commenting at the have an effect on in their paintings, Bharath says, “Water is a fundamental necessity and we wish this to achieve other people in a protected way. There are poorer sections who don’t have get right of entry to to wash water.”
“We have now gotten many subscriptions to our 20-litre water cans that value Rs 55 coming from slum spaces. They really feel protected the use of it. With the ability to give get right of entry to to blank water to other people from all walks of existence is truly pleasing,” he provides.
In the meantime, for Bala, BookWater isn’t just a industry.
“These days, most cancers charges are taking pictures throughout the roofs. Persons are eating microplastics as a result of those degraded cans. Our number one function is to democratise protected water for all,” says Bala.
He provides, “Whilst doing that, we additionally take pleasure in being an absolutely environmentally accountable and sustainable corporate. Probably the most pleasing section is figuring out that we’re doing our bit in opposition to the well being of other people in addition to the surroundings.”
Edited by means of Padmashree Pande. All footage: BookWater.