Utilizing Micro-Enterprise to Sustain Safe Water Initiatives

More than a decade ago, Pentair began work with Safe Water Network to launch the first safe water station in India. Today our water stations provide clean water to more than 400,000 people on a daily basis, and are sustained through local micro-enterprise.

While this certainly represents progress, this is nonetheless a small fraction of the people who lack access to clean, safe water in India. Government infrastructure focuses primarily on ensuring that treated water reaches homes and businesses in large cities, often leaving smaller towns and rural areas behind.

Safe Water Network, supported by funding from the Pentair Foundation, works with local entrepreneurs to manage filtration systems across India. These small enterprises allow low-income families access to safe water at a price which is affordable to them.

Check out what Kurt Soderlund, CEO of Safe Water Network, and Venkatesh Raghavendra, vice president, have written about these micro-utilities and the challenges facing them in an opinion piece on the Wharton School website.