We all are aware about the water scarcity problems in metro cities. You may be surprised to know that most of the RO purifiers waste almost 75% of water intake to produce 25% purified output.
The rate at which water requirements are rising and water tables are depleting in metros, the future looks scary. While working for a water purifier company in Delhi, NCR in 2014, this poor water purifying ratio of RO irked Naveen so much that he decided to work and add efficiency to the process.
Naveen Kumar is a B. Tech graduate from IIT BHU. After realizing various shortcomings of modern RO purification systems, Naveen and his batchmate Rohit Kumar Mittal decided to develop a new working model in the space. Naveen told OpIndia.com that the duo decided to focus on:
1. Water Wastages
2. Cost Effectiveness
3. Electricity Consumption
In 2014, the duo presented their first prototype to Malaviya Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (MCIIE), IIT-BHU.
Aquvio, under the mentor-ship of MCIIE and with the tagline पयो: रित रंतम्| (Water conserve the conservator), has been winning awards since then. Few days back, Zee News covered the work which Aquvio team is working.
As shared by Naveen during our conversation, with limited resources, Aquvio team has been doing better than existing RO players.
In July, Aquvio was shortlisted among the top 20 semi-finalists in the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme (GCIP)-India Chapter. Aquvio also got a startup recognition from Start up India and Stand up India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of India.
However, Naveen also expressed his disappointment for not getting enough support from private bodies as well as from the government. As per Naveen, the rules mandates central government, state governments and the PSUs to procure at least 20% from the Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME). When Aquvio team approaches government offices to talk about installation of their system, they get nothing more than another delayed dates. Despite this, Naveen and his team are optimistic about the future.