Mobile kiosk in Vizag extracts mineral-enriched water from air

VISAKHAPATNAM: In a first of its kind, the port city has installed an innovative

water kiosk

in which potable water is harvested from the

air

instead of depending on scarce groundwater and surface water resources.


The initiative is supported by the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) and Sustainable Enterprises for Water and Health(Sewah project) as an alliance between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the SWN (Safe Water Network). USAID has partnered with the

Union ministry of housing and urban affairs

under the Jal Jeevan programme.

The

technology

for the mobile water-from-air kiosk has been developed by a Hyderabad-based company under the Make in India initiative and was inaugurated on

Beach Road

on Tuesday.

Drinking water is generated through multiple level filtration (filtering out the contaminants), cooling and condensing the air into water droplets as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Indian standards for potable water.

Inaugurating the kiosk on Beach Road, Vizag mayor

Golagani Hari Venkata Kumari

said, “This idea is unique and I would like to see it replicated in tourist and slum areas.”

“Apart from providing clean, mineral-enriched potable water harvested from the air, the kiosk, called Meghdoot, will also function as a water knowledge resource centre (WRKC) by creating awareness and imparting necessary information to members of the local communities as well as nearby schools and consumers on the benefits of good water, sanitation and hygiene practices,” informed Poonam Sewak, vice-president, programmes and partnerships, SWN.

Ramkrishna Mukkavilli, founder and managing director of Maithri Aquatech that developed the kiosk, said, “With the endeavour to create a sustainable future and conserve scanty water resources, we have developed an innovative technology, which can generate water by harvesting the moisture in the air on a highly cost-effective and scalable basis. It is a decentralised, environment-friendly ‘plug-and-play’ solution capable of producing 100% microbe-free potable water, with a capacity of generating over one million litres of water every day.”

“We are also looking forward to expanding this project across multiple locations in Visakhapatnam as well as in other smart cities in the near future,” he added.

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