The Premamrutha Dhaara Project: A Sustainable Drinking Water Solution with Social Impact

Access to clean water is so critical for development and survival that the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal number 6 (SDG-6) was to ensure availability and sustained management of water and sanitation. The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2006 estimated that 97 million Indians lacked clean and safe water. Fluoride and total dissolvable solids (TDS) in drinking water were dangerously high at many parts of rural India, with adverse impacts. On the other hand, buying clean drinking water from commercial vendors at market rates was not a realistic alternative, a costly recurring expense that much of India's rural population could not afford. The case tracks the efforts of Huggahalli, head of the technology group of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisations (SSSO), to devise a sustainable solution to the drinking water problem in rural India that is low on cost, high on impact. They eventually develop a model that satisfies all these criteria and becomes the basis for a project called Premamrutha Dhaara. Funded by Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, the project aims to install water purification plants in more than 100 villages spanning six states in India, with the ultimate goal of turning over plant operations to the beneficiary villages and setting up a welfare fund in each village from the revenue generated. Social service projects, particularly in developing countries, have their unique challenges. The case highlights the importance of performing feasibility analysis as part of the project planning in social projects. The case also describes how the financial and operational dimensions of sustainability could lead to a self-sustainable system. The social innovation framework used to deploy the water purification project to achieve broader rural welfare has wider implications for project management, social innovation and change, sustainable operations management, strategic non-profit management, and public policy.

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