In 2009, several villages in Maharashtra, including Dongargaon in Mulshi, faced a severe issue with fluorosis, a disease caused by excessive exposure to fluoride. This mineral’s high concentration in drinking water led to various health problems, such as arthritis, skeletal fluorosis, and dental issues.
Abhijeet Gan, who was then working on water treatment products, was assigned the task of finding a solution for the villagers of Dongargaon. The Nagpur resident travelled 100 kilometres to the affected area and spent several days understanding the problem in detail. He was deeply moved by the plight of the children and adults, who suffered from brown teeth and weakened bones.
Abhijeet Gan, a BITS Pilani engineer, worked for months to develop a solution. After studying numerous research papers and going through multiple iterations, he created the first prototype — a water purification technology using electrolysis to remove fluoride from water.
Following the successful installation of the first plant in Dongargaon, the Maharashtra Government requested that Rite Water Solutions, Abhijeet’s venture, install 50 more plants across the state. Since then, the company has undertaken various water purification projects, addressing some of rural India’s most pressing drinking water challenges.
From chemical to biological treatment of water, Rite Water Solutions has now established over 5,200 community water purification plants across the country. Abhijeet Gan, the 41-year-old founder, claims that the company is purifying over 10 million litres of water every day.
Providing safe water to rural India
Access to clean drinking water, which most of us take for granted, is a luxury for many in rural India. The Government’s Jal Jeevan Mission, launched in 2019, aims to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections to all rural households. So far, about 75 percent of rural households have been provided with tap water connections, former Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said in March 2024.
Abhijeet Gan, the MD & CEO of Rite Water Solutions, started working on this mammoth problem almost 18 years ago, much before the advent of the Jal Jeevan mission.
After completing his computer science degree from BITS Pilani and MBA in marketing from SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, two roads lay in front of him. One would be to continue his lucrative career as a consultant at Accenture, while the other would be the tough path of entrepreneurship.
It’s an open secret that he chose the latter. “My father was a first-generation entrepreneur. After I came back to Nagpur, we would rattle our brains about which area I could venture into. Since my father already had experience in water treatment, I decided to work in the same line, but focus more on solving the drinking water crisis,” Abhijeet tells The Better India.
The trip to Dongargaon turned into a turning point in his life, igniting the innovator and entrepreneur in him. Water contamination remains a major problem even today, with a report by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) in December 2023 showing that fluoride had been detected in groundwater in 469 districts across 27 states while arsenic has been detected in 230 districts across 25 states.
The entrepreneur successfully implemented a defluoridation system using electrolysis. His innovative method caused fluoride compounds to settle, providing villagers with clean, fluoride-free water. This project in 2009 kicked off his mission to provide clean drinking water to every household in the country.
How it works
Rite Water Solutions has different solutions available vis-a-vis water purification including decentralised water purification systems, solar-powered water treatment units, and mobile water ATMs. Some of these are developed in-house while a few have been developed through tie-ups with research labs.
Their initiatives are IoT(Internet Of Things) driven water management systems which integrate this technology into rural water supply schemes. This enables real-time monitoring, leak detection, and optimised water distribution, minimising waste and ensuring effective resource allocation, shares the engineer.
The clean water company works with State and Central Governments, operating on long-term operation and maintenance contracts.
They have fluoride, arsenic, nitrate, iron removal and more. Their solutions are also sustainable as some of them are backed by solar power, making them practical in villages which lack a steady supply of electricity.
Solutions are developed based on the kind of contaminant, shares Abhijeet. The patented technology uses the process of disinfection using electrochlorination. Simply put, they use chlorine to purify the water.
“What’s unique about this is the fact that we generate chlorine onsite from common salt, without chemicals. Our plant converts a salt solution into chlorine. This makes it easy to apply in any village, as salt is available everywhere. There is no need for chemicals, which are difficult to procure in rural areas,” explains the CEO.
The patent is for the generation of chlorine from common salt. While the initial focus was on chemical removal, it has now moved to biological contamination removal too, which works like the water filters you have at home.
Abhijeet shares that they have signed contracts to work in 17,500 villages under the Jal Jeevan Mission in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Bihar, West Bengal, and Karnataka. “I wish to provide clean drinking water to over 25,000 villages in the next two years, which would entail treating over 1.5 billion litres of water daily,” he says.
In many villages, this is the first time they are receiving clean, RO water. The village sarpanch of Dhurera in Rajasthan, Laksham Sahu, shares that the company’s RO plant has changed their lives for the better since 2017. “We used to travel almost three to four kilometres daily to fetch water. Even then, the water wasn’t very clean leading to illnesses, especially amongst children. We are happiest about the fact that our children are getting fresh, clean water daily,” he says.
Ask Abhijeet what has been his happiest moment? He remarks, “During our early days, we completed a project in Jharkhand, delivering clean water to people’s homes for the first time. I’ll never forget the joy on their faces when they finally had water in their houses. That moment made me realise the profound impact of simple solutions.”
Edited by Pranita Bhat; Images Courtesy Rite Water Solutions