Can tech start-ups help in better ground water management?
Hyderabad-based startup Kristnam Technologies helps companies and homes get closer to their water conservation goals.
In 2018, Cape town faced DAY ZERO -the serious consequence of groundwater mismanagement.
“Day Zero” — refers to the day when a city or region’s water supply has been completely depleted or reached an extremely low level. Resulting in the government enforcing water restrictions.
Day zero is inevitable in countries like Qatar, Israel, and Lebanon due to zero water resources. The reason is that it takes almost decades for the natural restoration of groundwaters to occur.
Despite groundwater resources being the lifelines for agriculture, and our country’s — 52% population dependent on it, a comprehensive survey in 2018 seems late. But the good side is that we have a streamlined survey in place that analyses water bodies with a well-structured Composite Water Management Index(CWMI).
The NITI Aayog survey ranked the states with CWMI (based on 28 indicators present in the state like restoration of water bodies, irrigation methods, farm practices, drinking water policy, and water governance/water management).
It took 3 years for data collection only.
The report concluded that the majority of states have undermanaged or mismanaged resources. If this condition prevails 40% of the Indian population will have no access to drinking water by 2030.
With all that said, the possible ways to avoid the consequences of groundwater mismanagement could happen through water data management and its efficient use.
What is water data?
Measurements of available water quantity, quality, and distribution of surface level & groundwater are referred to as water data.
For example, Voltmeters and smart power meters are used to measure and manage electric consumption data.
Data collection will be the first step to working on planning and distribution.
But in the case of water resources the problem is,
“We do not have any water data”.
“We do not have a water meter to monitor individual pipelines”.
DIGGING DEEPER INTO THE BACKGROUND
Groundwater conservation is difficult because it is a hidden resource that is overused and depleted due to poor monitoring and mismanagement.
Effective management and regulation of groundwater use are complex, especially in areas where resources and expertise are limited as mentioned below.
- Agriculture uses 80% of the groundwater resources but most of it does not have any monitoring and the ones that are monitored are not active/accurate enough.
- Industries track the water usage that goes into their devices or machines but only some of the entirety is recorded. Thus, there is a lack of resources like effective water meters or flow meters in both sectors.
Let’s consider the major water sources in India, which are
GROUNDWATER — Aquifier and wells
SURFACE WATERS — Rivers, lakes, ponds, wetlands, dams.
Rivers and dams are inaccessible to most parts of the country, they are partially measured(dam waters are measured by the water volume they hold in the dam’s surface area).
Lakes, Ponds, and wetlands have no records of any water volume estimation.
Borewells/borewell waters tap into the groundwater reserve which cities/metros depend on. There is no information on the amount of water being pumped by individual borewells.
While the number of borewells drilled yearly is recorded and is soaring high, there are fewer/no restoration methods.
Replenishing groundwater by natural refilling at depth is a slow process and takes decades for the groundwater to slowly seep through several surface layers. It should be considered a priority, as groundwater contributes to approx [97% of usable freshwater, globally]
Can there be a practical solution to avoid the consequences?
Kristnam technologies, a Hyderabad-based startup, introduces water data and monitoring which can delay serious consequences like overpumping or day zero.
“Most of the water data that we have seen are guesswork or referencing estimations to the previously available data,” says Vinay Chataraju, Co-Founder and CEO of KRISTNAM TECHNOLOGIES in a casual chat with IBLOT.
Kristnam was ideated, when Sri Harsha(Co-founder of Kristnam technologies), an IIT-Kanpur student, came up with an idea to digitalize the water data by installing a water flow meter with an inbuilt sensor on the supply pipelines for his thesis. When Sri Harsha implemented his idea it was just a water flow device with sensors and data for a project thesis for a governmental organization.
But this idea became a startup when the product started getting orders with zero marketing in place.
During this time, his batchmates at IIT-Kanpur, Vinay Chataraju, and Prithvi Sagar joined as co-founders with Sri Harsha and established the startup at Kanpur in 2017 and later extended their office to Hyderabad as their head office.
During the initial days of product research, they did a lot of activity around lakes, ponds, rivers, and water banks that supported agriculture.
They were analyzed for their water usage measurement, surface water fluctuations, and distribution which would help them set up prototype models for research.
Most of the water management companies in India, target water purification machines, wastewater treatment wells, and borewell digging services for clients. While Kristnam came up with the novel idea of monitoring and digitalizing water resources.
There are only a handful of manufacturers and suppliers that work with water flow meters.
Kristnam came up with the idea of covering every aspect of monitoring, documentation, and distribution of water with economical water meters(starting from 2k), water data tracking and data-generating dashboards, and real-time monitoring systems.
Kristnam ensures that these solutions to groundwater resource depletion issues can be addressed.
Dhaara smart water flowmeter, an integrated system for online monitoring ultrasonic flowmeter that tracks the water distribution in real-time for applications such as drinking water supply, groundwater extraction, industrial water usage, and irrigation. The water inflow & outflow monitor, water storage audit, and data generation are key features of the different types of water meters like ultrasonic, mechanical, and electromagnetic.
Starting with a Basic plan(agricultural farm water plan) at a cost of 2k-4k per farmer per season there are many plans like corporate, Enterprise, and domestic, designed for every sector of the community. This economical aspect of their portfolio is an added advantage.
They could reach nearly 150–200 farmers to save 1000–1500 liters of water in a year by involving farmers to use their water flow meters for the borewell during their first year of launch.
Over the years, they scaled up and provided water consulting services to almost all sectors like government projects, hospitals, hotels, and domestic water lines.
In 2021, a radar-based flood water monitoring device in kristnam made headlines for sending flood warning alerts around river Ganga and the nearby villages, bringing down human and economic loss.
But how does this help individual homes/apartments with solutions?
Dhaara smart is a portable water flow device designed for small-scale water monitoring like homes/apartments.
Most homes are not aware of the availability of such devices or they fear the initial costs that occur during installation and they hesitate to see the bigger picture of water conservation.
Moreover, when you pay for what you use it gives a commitment and willingness towards water tax and water saving. As opposed to paying a bulk divided bill among a community or apartment where both a water-conscious and negligent person pays the same amount.
The best take-home from this article could be how we could save ourselves from water taxes whilst saving the resource too.
A COLLECTIVE APPROACH
When homes, industries, hospitals, and corporates take up efficient water conservation plans it could contribute towards bigger water conservation goals.
In his words, Vinay explains WHY WATER MEASUREMENT/MONITORING to collect Water Data is important.
- Estimating the volume of the water resource is the first parameter that can be used for building, estimation, distribution, and planning to be water safe(informed of water availability well ahead ) in the coming years.
- When water safety is assured, in turn, it reduces risking water resources for irrigation(food safety is also assured).
- Rightly optimizing resources helps prevent wastage and conservation. Central Ground Water Authority emphasizes that there is a potential to reduce up to 20% groundwater extraction in 2- 3 years. We could cut down the irrigational water usage like how China uses only half the water resources to cultivate the same crops.
- monitor the water costs for the companies.
- Before the laws and resources become stringent, it is wiser to approach water conservation/preventive measures.
WAY FORWARD
Water education could help create awareness about the current status of resources.
Water seepage(letting water be in contact with the surface for a longer time) can be an effective way to restore groundwater resources.
Water gardens, rain gardens, and rainwater harvesting help with water seepage(making most of the surface water to be available for seepage and turning it into groundwater than getting washed away).
Smart washing taps, devices with low run rates, and cutting down on overpumping will help prevent extraction of the water from pumps more than what is required.
Upon his plans for the future, Mr. Vinay says that though they are not looking for outbound reach, there have had orders/inquiries from Israel, Africa, and Bangladesh.
The reason is bandwidth.
Kristnam team currently tries to focus on production, customer segment, and the market, and to capture the majority market.
There is a common terminology called a “beachhead market”. You get to the shore, then you start building and occupying after you achieve your beachhead market.
It is very important for any startup to capture the beachhead market.
Keeping that in mind, they halted their international plan for a while.
“Awareness of the current water situation and research on advanced/advancing water saver models can be a solution”, says Vinay at the end of the conversation.
We would like to bring more science to this sector by bringing in data-driven water management from rivers to the tap.
While achieving a phenomenon like water resources conservation is daunting, inching one step closer as the community is not too far.
Interview Credits : Tejashree Murugan an alumnus of IIT Madras and currently a student at IIM Ahmedabad — she writes about science, technology, literature, and history. She also writes for various organisations like Students for freedom. She conducted this interview with Mr. Vinay Chataraju on behalf of IBLOT. Follow her here.
About the author:
I am Veena, a Biotechnology Postgraduate, Ex- Research scholar and Content writer by profession. Exploring the concepts behind the incredibly complicated mother nature have always fascinated me. Reach out to me at chittatoor.veena@gmail.com.
