Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

In a first-of-its-kind initiative by Indian Railways, South Central Railway has installed an atmospheric water generator (AWG)’ kiosk at Secunderabad Railway Station. The market-ready version, called Meghdoot, was developed at the Water Development Centre and R&D Incubation at the IICT campus, The Hindu BusinessLine reported.  

The kiosk produces around 1,000 litres per day. “Conserve Water, Conserve Life: Railways introduces ‘Meghdoot’ device to harvest water directly from air, which is then filtered & remineralised for drinking,” tweeted Piyush Goyal, current Minister of Railways and Commerce in the Government of India. 

The company claims that water it produces from air is 100 per cent microbe-free. It contains no harmful chemicals. 

Watermakerindia which first brought this technology in India in 2004-05 said that the machine can be installed easily at any place of choice. The device is ideal for offices, hospitals and hostels, the report said. Its size ranges from 25 litres to 5000 litres a day.

History and process of the technology: Earlier water from air used to be collected from traditional methods such as fog fence. Now, AWG first harvest from air, filters and remineralise it for drinking. It operates in a manner very similar to that of a dehumidifier, in which, air is passed over a cooled coil, causing water to condense. and then water is collected in Tank. All it needs is a power source.  

Price range: Meghdoot puts a price ranging from 2 to 8. It is 8, for a litre with a bottle and 5 per litre if passengers carry their own bottle. For a 300 ml glass, it is 3 with container and 2 if passengers carry their own glass. A 500 ml glass of water will come at 5 with container and 3 if passengers carry their own glass.

Jalimudi in Andhra Pradesh in India was the world’s first village to supply drinking water made from the AWG. 

An AWG in Jalimudi village, Andhra Pradesh

Jalimudi was followed by Gandhigram near Gujarat. “We are not a completely green technology yet because we need power to run the machines. We hope to change this in the future with solar, wind, and alternate power sources. Can you imagine if we have alternate power giving alternate water, what a great thing that would be? That is my ambition right now,”  Meher Bhandara, the founder and director of WaterMakerIndia told Thebetterindia

AWG installed in Gandhigram.

The technology is likely to hit water purifier market and emerge as a tough competitor to the latter. 

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