WaterHealth CEO calls for cleantech to meet India's water needs

Water scarcity has prompted cleantech innovation related to distributing clean water in India, but additional work is needed, said WaterHealth International CEO Sanjay Bhatnagar.

Bhatnagar said WaterHealth is looking at how to evolve business models related to the use of water in agriculture. He spoke during a breakout session at the Cleantech Forum XXIV Delhi, which convened an eco-system of investors and entrepreneurial companies from the cleantech sector at the Taj Palace Hotel this week. The conference concluded today.

Irvine, Calif.-based private WaterHealth provides business solutions to address water scarcity, including water purification and disinfection technology, for remote and under served regions of the world.

“The supply-demand gap in India is going to grow by 450 bcm (billion cubic meters) by the year 2020,” Bhatnagar predicted.

The government of India faces an overwhelming shortage of distributed water, especially in agricultural production, he said. He highlighted the fact that if the problem is not addressed through innovation, implications for India’s agricultural sector could be severe (see Will cleantech mobilize to prevent water shortages in India?).

“India may have to consider developing long supply chains and incentivizing farmers to shift water-intensive grain production activities offshore,” he said.

The current practice of flood irrigation consumes large amounts of energy to pump water, much of which is wasted (see Cleantech panel: The days of cheap water are over).

Drip irrigation systems—which deliver water using a network of pipes with a series of outlet points—can prevent the waste of up to 70 percent of the water used in flood irrigation, also reducing fertilizer needs by 30 percent and saving energy.

Bhatnagar added that a big question that remains to be answered is how to create relevant business models around effective decentralized water distribution.

Such business models are expected to require the right mix of public-private partnerships. These private-public partnerships would also need to effectively address the willingness of the rural market to pay user-fees for such services, according to WaterHealth.

Earlier this year, WaterHealth said it was planning to install water purification and disinfection systems for 600 communities across India, funded by a $15 million project finance round from International Finance Corp. (see IFC invests $15M in WaterHealth for filtration in rural India).

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