ABSOLUTE WATER

Featured in Discovery Channel India’s Planet Healers, Absolute Water, striving

for a cleaner future through creative technology
With a population of more than 1.3 billion and growing, India’s natural
resources are facing dire shortages. Studies by the World Health Organisation
(WHO) as well as Greenpeace have listed nine and seven of the country’s cities
as the most polluted in the world, respectively. To put it mildly, an increased
focus on innovative solutions is the need of the hour.
Discovery Channel India’s Planet Healers hosted by actor Jim Sarbh — which
premiered on March 8th— takes a look at startups who’ve created innovative
ways of dealing with issues of waste and pollution which can be scaled for the
long-run.

Smita Singhal, founder of Absolute Water

When Delhi’s Smita Singhal could smell the stench of sewage water through
her home’s water pipelines during the monsoon, she decided to have this
water treated to make it reusable and find a way to provide natural, chemical-
free and drinkable water to Indian households in the same way as it is in
developed countries. With her father, Sunil Singhal’s help, she adopted the
technique of vermicomposting — the cultivation of worms to consume and
decompose sewage waste. This forms the top-most layer of a bio-filter that
lets the water pass through different layers of wood, sand and carbon, filtering
the water in an eco-friendly manner. In final filtration stage the water is passed
through a membrane, segregating contaminated water from clean, drinkable
water. “Our technology is economically sustainable because the water that’s
filtered through the membrane is rich with organic nutrients and can be used
as fertiliser that’s beneficial for agriculture and horticulture. There’s no cost of
maintenance since no sludge is generated in the process”, she said.
Since 2016 starting from Delhi, Absolute Water has already established itself in
industrial and institutional areas, but Singhal said that, “We’re aiming to reach
the sewage water right at its individual sources. Small, modular units can be
installed as a part of the plumbing system of toilets to treat sewage water in
individual houses. The clean water can be used directly from there. We’re also
in the process of designing mobile module units, so that polluted water in rural
areas can be made potable. They would function on solar power to help
conserve energy, as the settled units do now. They could protect groundwater
sources, have low maintenance costs and generate revenue too.”
With faith in her own and future generations, Singhal said, “I can see that some
people are conscious about pollution in water and the wastage of resources,
and have adopted simple habits such as using less water, composting kitchen
waste, reducing plastic utensils for naturally made ones etc. These methods
will reduce the carbon footprint by a large margin, as will considering sewage
water and waste as resources.”