Eureka Forbes Limited is India's leading health and
hygiene brand. The company’s product portfolio
encompasses water purification, vacuum cleaning,
air purification and home security solutions with a
base of 15 million happy customers.
Dr. Rajesh
Roy, Head - Community Fulfillment, Eureka Forbes
Limited told
Sandeep Menezes that to ensure safe
drinking water, the government should facilitate
more PPP models of water distribution in
conjunction with Panchayat Raj and local
implementation agencies.
The budget for National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP)
last year (2010-11) was 
9000 crore - but drinking water both
qualitatively and quantitatively remains a dream across large parts
of Rural India. Comment.
The challenging part is the awareness in the block level on water related
projects. In spite of having the allocated fund it gets channelized to works
related check dam building, making overhead tanks for storing the water,
etc. I believe, the quest should come from the Community level. If they can
explain their need to their local Panchayat and to the DM level, things
could move a bit constructively and towards the expectations. The
community needs to be "empowered" to think and need to be educated on
their constitutional rights. They also need to understand the importance of
safe drinking water.
Water distribution is still tightly controlled by various state
governments and therefore economically unviable. Comment.
Frankly speaking there are many challenges in the grass root level which
the agencies working for the State Government could be facing. Apart
from the shear confusion towards the need and implementation
procedure, these agencies also need to get regular training on the ways of
providing safe drinking water to the rural community. In this context, many
State Government's have approached and are working closely with
Corporates in this business in the PPP (Public Private Partnership) model
to tackle this issue. This results in partial cost sharing towards the project
and makes the whole approach economically viable for the community.
Critics claim water recycling is an expensive option for developing
nations like India. Comment.
Well, we need to be aware of the new technologies in the market to draw
such conclusion. Having said that, water recycling for the rural segment
could be handled economically by various innovative techniques. One of them is the microbiological treatments of the
waste water where the contaminants in the
waste water could be used as a food material
for the microorganisms which in turn helps in
reducing the contaminated portion in the waste
water making it usable for many other options if
not for drinking!
Going forward, do you foresee more private
participation in water distribution?
That is the only way forward which I can
foresee.
Going forward, how much investment is
expected into upgradation and expansion
of India's water sector infrastructure?
Government of India has committed
45
trillion ($1 trillion) to infrastructure
development over the next 10 years. The
Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal
Mission has sanctioned 260 water supply and
sewerage treatment projects worth over
40,000 crores.
What are the main challenges to providing
clean drinking water across Rural & Urban
India? How can these challenges be
mitigated?
As said earlier, the main challenge is the
awareness on safe drinking water and
regarding our constitutional rights. Once the
community knows that it is their constitutional
right to get safe drinking water from the
government - they would go to any extent to
achieve that. This is where the grass root
NGOs should plug in for the regular advocacy
and awareness campaign in partnership with
the private organizations having interest in this
sector. The government should also facilitate
more PPP models in conjunction with
Panchayat Raj and local implementation
agencies.
Eureka Forbes is one of the leading players
in India's water purification segment. What
is the current and future size of this
market? Tell us about the role of Eureka
Forbes in this market?
The market is poised to reach
70 billion by
2015 from the current
30 billion growing at a
CAGR of 22 per cent. We are having focus on
Rural India, more selling points and in the
process of bringing more innovative product
lines. Our vision is to implement 1500 "water
shops" or water vending kiosks in the next five
years across India. We have already forayed in
solar products and see ourselves the leaders
in the alternate energy sector.
Going forward, does Eureka Forbes have a
long term business strategy in this market?
We are in the process of launching innovative
product lines for our rural community. We also
believe in working very closely with the
community and empowering them with self
sustainable business models. This would also
help us to identify and support rural
entrepreneurs who can drive our future
business interest in this segment. Generating
livelihoods for the community could be one of
the most important strategies for us to pursue
in the near future.