Sarmaliya an interior village in Ajmer, Rajasthan has a population of 1354 and 289 households. The village comprises of mixed community and cultures sharing inclusivity as well as a sense of belongingness. The majority of their livelihood comes from Labour jobs. The village faces water scarcity due to the unavailability of drinking water sources as their only sources are Municipality tankers (which comes once a week) and a borewell that has 2680 TDS. (Source: Baseline Report)
Baseline study done by the Impact Assessment team of Sarvajal highlighted all the surveyed households of Sarmaliya were highly dissatisfied with the quality of drinking water and 94% face difficulty in access and availability.
IndusInd Bank under its CSR initiative, Hinduja Foundation’s Jal Jeevan project which is a flagship program, adopted this village with Piramal Sarvajal (a social enterprise working specifically towards safe, accessible and affordable drinking water by leveraging technology) as an implementing partner. A 1000lph water purification unit was installed at the centre of the village on 14 February 2019. In all, IndusInd Bank has adopted 35 villages in 5 districts of UP and Rajasthan by setting up community-level purification plants with Water ATM.
After the Installation, Piramal Sarvajal’s team engages with the community every month to spread awareness about health and water linkages. Consumers appreciate the price at which it is made available to everyone and have ease from previous challenges. They shared “Sarvajal water is affordable and the easy access makes us feel comfortable to fetch anytime”
Out of 289, 88 households are consistently having safe drinking water practices within a year because of overall improvement in health and quality of life.
