Startup Mantra: Borewells will never run dry

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PUNE Nearly 60 per cent of India’s districts are experiencing depletion of groundwater resources, with some areas experiencing a decline of more than four meters per year, according to a report by the Central Ground Water Board. This crisis is deepening every year as 20 lakh new borewells are added every year to the existing six crore borewells in India. With agriculture accounting for 80 per cent of India’s water consumption, the situation is further exacerbated by rapid urbanisation, industrialisation, and population growth. As a result, millions of people are facing severe water shortages, affecting not only their daily lives but also their livelihoods. Sensing the urgent need for groundwater supply augmentation, Rahul Bakare and Vineet Phadnis founded Urdhvam Environmental Technologies in 2017 and launched a productised service Bore++ Charger which recharges and revives low-yielding or dry borewells.

Nearly 60 per cent of India’s districts are experiencing depletion of groundwater resources, with some areas experiencing a decline of more than four meters per year. (HT PHOTO)
Nearly 60 per cent of India’s districts are experiencing depletion of groundwater resources, with some areas experiencing a decline of more than four meters per year. (HT PHOTO)

Ground zero

Bakare, a student of Jnana Prabodhini school, was inclined to work on socially relevant issues. A mechanical engineer by education, Bakare had worked in the IT industry for many years. While working in the USA, he always read about the water problems, and farmers’ suicide in India and wondered why despite sufficient rains and surface water availability, these problems remained.

After returning to India in 2003, Bakare joined an online gaming startup in Hyderabad and worked there for six years. Says Bakare, “In 2009, I put my resume online stating that I want to do something in socially relevant space. Rohini Nilekani, a philanthropist, came across my resume and gave me an opportunity to work for her philanthropic organisation in Bengaluru, which was working on drinking water and sanitation issues.”

“We brought together five social organisations from across the country and started a participatory groundwater management initiative. However, there was no one working on the groundwater depletion issues and scalable solutions were also missing. Hence, I decided to start a for-profit company to work on groundwater solutions that would be scalable later,” said Bakare.

After returning to Pune, Bakare came to know about Phadnis who was also a founding member of one NGO working on groundwater issues. “I did not have the technical expertise related to groundwater issues but Phadnis being a hydrogeologist was fully aware of the problems. While working on projects related to groundwater, we met and discussed the probable solutions. Our discussions resulted in us coming together to start Urdhvam Environmental Technologies company.”

Identifying problem statement

Bakare and Phadnis worked on consultancy services-based groundwater projects for industries, townships, apartments, and societies. However, Bakare was quick to realise that he was getting trapped in the project mode which is unscalable. That prompted Bakare to shift his focus to product and use technology to provide productised services.

Bakare said, “While brainstorming about the products, we considered various problem statements. We also ascertained that most of the problems faced by various stakeholders including farmers were due to the borewell going dry. Hence, we decided to take borewell as the central unit and find out issues around it like why they go dry and what are the reasons behind it.”

“While thinking of solutions, we thought of recharging the borewells with rooftop water, existing surface level water or intervention at nearby water stream. But, most borewells were located away from such locations and these borewells typically dried up fast. While brainstorming with Phadnis, we tried to understand the anatomy of a borewell and study the reasons behind it going dry. So, we changed our earlier philosophy of recharging the borewell from outside sources. We thought why can’t we recharge it from inside. We met other experts and farmers and decided to develop the technology and keeping in mind the affordability factor of our customers, who were primarily farmers,” he said.

Prototype

Once the problem statement and potential solution were identified, the duo started developing a tool for trials. After the first prototype was made, they faced many challenges on the site.

Bakare said, “We had initially thought of an electrical or pneumatic drill which could be developed into the tool. After a lot of iterations, we now have developed a robotic tool which enables the machine to go up to a certain depth once the para-hydrogeologist enters data in a mobile application and based on hydrogeological logic the tool begins implementation and comes out.”

“Our anecdotal evidence suggests that water quality surrounding the borewell increased and the duration of water availability also increased up to six months. Farmers also claimed that their income increased by up to 50 per cent while a residential society could save up to 6 lakh of tanker cost and industry could increase the borewell runtime from one hour to four hours to meet its water supply requirement. With this initial success, we are now scaling up our operations,” added Bakare.

Implementations

To paraphrase Bakare, they undertake ‘angiography’ and ‘angioplasty’ of the borewell before commencing any operation. Explaining further, Bakare said, “We have an underwater camera system inserted inside the borewell to conduct the scan. Thereafter, we insert the robotic tool inside the borewell which performs the drill or perforations at appropriate depths from where the rainwater enters the borewell. Although the technology is complex, we have simplified it so that even a para-professional from a rural area could operate it.”

“We have designed a model wherein we train a para-hydrogeologist in using our mobile application. The professional enters the hydrogeological, geomorphological, and meteorological data from his location to the mobile application. Our experts in Pune review this data and send approval for implementation. Once this approval is given, the robotic tool starts its operations. Para-professionals will generate the demand, undertake the implementation and share the revenue with us.”

“Our technology is effective and efficient as it costs only around one-fifth as compared to other competitors. The entire operation is completed in just two to three hours. We have completed more than 2,300 implementations in 12 states within India and cumulatively recharged 350 crore litres of water in the last three years through borewells,” Bakare stated.

Next moves

DBS Bank, Singapore has selected Urdhvam to do 500 bore-charger implementations in Marathwada region of Maharashtra. Similarly, CISCO and Social Alpha under the Krishi Mangal initiative have awarded a social grant for 500 implementations, informed Bakare.

“Apart from the water supply augmentation, we have identified two more gaps–awareness and education and demand management while addressing the issues related to groundwater. From an awareness and education aspect, we are launching a groundwater simulator for schools and college students, and faculty who lack knowledge about groundwater. Besides, we will be utilising IoT sensors to determine the water level in the borewell. This sensor data will be transmitted to the cloud and will be visible to the farmers on their mobile applications in a visually easy-to-communicate manner. Basis this data, farmers can decide their cultivation pattern and area and hence the input cost can be reduced significantly,” said Bakare.

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