Drinkwell: Quenching the thirst for clean water

One Saturday at noon in February, Adil Mahmud, a 25-year-old man, was processing papers to get a prepaid card to buy water from Zigatola Gabtola Water ATM Booth. He has been living in a rented flat in the Munshibari area in Zigatola for around two years.

He used to boil water on a gas stove to purify it, but as the price of cylinder gas has risen, he cannot cope with the expense.  Adil purchased a prepaid card for Tk50 and a top-up of Tk100.

Drinkwell, a US-based company has set up 290 such water ATM booths across the city, and is providing safe water to tens of thousands of city dwellers every day.

The company provides technology to create safe drinking water for underprivileged communities in India and Bangladesh. It uses "HIX" (Hybrid Ion Exchange), a proprietary nanotechnology-based resin platform capable of consistently removing arsenic and fluoride from the world's most challenging waters.

"Currently, Drinkwell has been selling 30 million litres of water monthly, on average, in Dhaka city only. We sell per litre of water for Tk0.40 (40 paisa) in Dhaka," said Drinkwell's CEO and co-founder Minhaj Chowdhury. 

Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Dhaka WASA), the water utility service, supplies piped water to households across the city. However, city dwellers consider piped water unsafe because the pipes sometimes leak, water gets contaminated, giving off a bad smell. As a result, many people even hate to bathe in Dhaka WASA's water, let alone drink it without purification. 

Thirty-three year old Minhaj Chowdhury, who was born and raised in Texas, US, holds a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and has won multiple awards, including the 2022 US Secretary of State's Award for Corporate Excellence in the category of climate resilience. He is a 2014 Echoing Green Fellow, 2015 Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur, and 2017 Ashoka Fellow.

How it all began

Minhaj came to Bangladesh in 2009 for the first time as a social entrepreneur. He set up 100 arsenic removal filters in the arsenic-affected rural areas in Manikganj for three months. But it did not work. He found out people in rural areas do not want to spend money on safe water, and secondly, it was tough for a  household owner to collect spare parts to keep the machine functioning.   

In 2013, Minhaj met Dr Arup SenGupta, an Indian scholar who implemented a community-based arsenic-free water enterprise in West Bengal, India, and jointly established Drinkwell with him. Their goal was to bring Dr SenGupta's Indian business model to Bangladesh. 

It took a year to raise funds for the company. To secure investment, Minhaj pitched the innovative business idea of Drinkwell at different business plan competitions in the USA. In July 2014, they  got investment for the first time. The United States–India Science & Technology Endowment Fund gave $3,00,000, an angel investor Sanjay Verma gave $50,000 and a non-profit foundation gave $80,000.

"With $4,30,000, I came to Dhaka on a one-way ticket," said Minhaj.

In 2015, Minhaj went to Manikganj again to implement the community-based water enterprise through women entrepreneurs. Minhaj worked to make it a success for three years, but failed again. This time, he found out it is tough for a woman to secure a loan. 

This time, however, he found out that people in urban areas were ready to spend money to get safe water. They then shifted the business from rural areas to urban areas.

At that time, BBC broadcast a documentary on Drinkwell's ATM-based water enterprise. Having watched that, the managing director of Dhaka WASA contacted them.

In 2017, Drinkwell started working with Dhaka WASA on a Public-Private Partnership business model and set up a water ATM booth in the Mugda area. Till today, Drinkwell has set up 290 ATM booths across the city. 

They also started working with Chittagong WASA in 2020 and set up six ATM booths in the port city. In Rajshahi, Drinkwell set up four ATM booths. They are selling every litre of water in Rajshahi at Tk0.80 (80 paisa), and at Tk0.60 (60 paisa) in Chattogram. 

"Drinkwell is doing business in Bangladesh by sharing the cost with government agencies. To set up an ATM, the WASA spends 50% and Drinkwell provides 50% of the cost," said Minhaj Chowdhury. 

The government agencies provide the land, shed, electricity and water line. On the other hand, Drinkwell sets up the ATM booths, employs the operators and takes care of the rest of the operational work.

All the money coming from water sale goes to the utility service of WASA, while Drinkwell gets a specific amount of money as a service provider. 

Customers on the rise

Drinkwell's customers and sales are increasing day by day. In 2018, with 59 ATM booths, Drinkwell sold 3,40,32,649 litres of water in the city and in that year, a total of 14,658 new users were added. In 2022, with 250 ATM booths, Drinkwell sold 34,93,93,846 litres of water. In the last year alone, a staggering 1,29, 732 new customers were added. 

On an average, 350 people are applying for ATM cards to buy water with the company in Dhaka. On 5 February, Drinkwell sold 9 lakh 23 thousand litres of water in Dhaka city.      

All of the ATM booths are set up in the compound of the water pump stations. Dhaka WASA has around 500 water pumps in the city area under 10 zones. Drinkwell entered into a contract to set up an ATM booth in each of the compounds. 
In the past, the company imported the ATM booth from India but in the midst of the pandemic when the supply chain faced disruption, they started sourcing the ATM booths from local firms that assemble the ATM booths. 

In 2019, Drinkwell got venture capital funds when investors found that more than 100 ATM booths had been set up in Dhaka city and the World Bank asked the company to work with Chittagong WASA. Venture capital firms including Danone Communities, Global Innovation Fund, TPG Growth invested in the company. 

Future plans

Minhaj Chowdhury's target is to provide safe water to 100 million people by 2030 and they are now conducting research on how many ATMs will be required to reach the target. 

"People want to get water at their doorsteps. They are willing to pay more for the service instead of having to carry water home," said Minhaj Chowdhury.  

Carrying water home often involves additional cost. However, supplying bottled water to the customers' homes will require Bangladesh Standard Testing Institute's (BSTI) certification. 

"It will require labs and chemists, and it will require water testing every day. We are gradually moving towards the water jar business," said Minhaj, adding, "Many blue jar companies are doing business in Dhaka city illegally." 

Minhaj believes that if these small companies want to do business, complying with the BSTI standard, their business will not be profitable because they will have to set up a lab and employ chemists to test the water every day. 

Drinkwell started a pilot project in Mohora in Chattogram with a BSTI approved plant. The company will provide water at the customer's door steps in the area. 

"Our vision is that we will set up our business, and we will make non-compliant businesses our delivery agents," said Minhaj. "Now what we want to do is to formalise the rural water sector."