Free Water: A Self-Sustainable Model for Indian Smart Cities
- KD Sameer
- 47 minutes ago
- 15 min read
On 19th November 2022, I published a blog post titled “Free Water for India.” The blog post asked whether India’s major cities could provide water without requiring citizens to purchase it as a commercial product.
It proposed that drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, rainwater, groundwater and urban water bodies should not be planned as separate systems. They should be connected through the One Water Approach, under which every water stream is conserved, treated, and reused according to the quality required for its intended purpose.
That was the dream.
The next step is to convert it into a workable urban public-service model.
Water should be free for people, not because its treatment and delivery have no cost, but because access to safe drinking water should not depend on a person’s ability to purchase a plastic bottle.
This is the journey from Dreamer to Doer.
What Does “Free Water” Mean?
Free Water does not mean that water has no value. It does not mean that water can be wasted, groundwater can be extracted without limits, or an unlimited quantity should be delivered without monitoring.
It means:
No person should have to make a separate payment to obtain the essential drinking water needed for life.
Citizens already contribute to public services through:
Direct and indirect taxes
Municipal taxes
Property taxes
Goods and Services Tax (GST)
State and central government revenues
Urban-development budgets
Public-health budgets
Water and sanitation programmes
Environmental and climate-resilience allocations
Under the proposed model, the cost of essential drinking-water infrastructure would be met collectively through these already collected public revenues and approved public budgets.
The citizen would not pay separately every time they drink water from:
A household tap
A school hydration station
A municipal bottle-refilling point
A railway-station fountain
A park drinking tap
A public Water House
A mobile hydration unit
The service would operate in the same public-service spirit as:
Street lighting
Public roads
Public parks
Fire services
Public-health surveillance
Stormwater drainage
Public sanitation
Society pays collectively through taxation so that every person can use the essential service when required.
Self-Sustainable Does Not Mean Commercialised
A self-sustainable Free Water model should not depend on selling water. It should not rely on:
Advertising-funded disposable bottles
Commercial sponsorship printed on bottled water
Premium pricing at transport hubs
Compulsory vending machines
Sale of water extracted from public resources
Converting every public-water point into a revenue centre
In this proposal, "self-sustainable" means that the system has a stable source of public funding, measurable savings, efficient operation and long-term maintenance. It means existing tax revenues are allocated through approved budgets; capital costs are planned rather than treated as emergency expenditure; water losses are reduced; energy efficiency lowers operating costs; existing packaged-water procurement budgets are redirected; plastic collection and disposal costs are reduced; preventive maintenance avoids repeated asset replacement; public-health and climate-resilience benefits justify public expenditure; and every fountain has lifecycle operation and maintenance funding.
The objective is not to make a profit from drinking water. The objective is to make free drinking-water access financially durable.
Water Should Not Become an Everyday Packaged Commodity
Bottled water has an important role during natural disasters, network contamination, remote-area emergencies, temporary disruption of municipal supply, and medical or special operational requirements. The problem begins when bottled water becomes the default method of accessing drinking water in an ordinary functioning city.
Today, a person may pay separately for water while:
Travelling by bus or train
Visiting a hospital
Attending a meeting
Walking through a market
Working outdoors
Studying at a school or college
Visiting a tourist destination
Entering a government office
Attending a public event
The water inside the bottle may be only a small part of what the consumer purchases.
The price also covers:
Plastic resin
Bottle manufacturing
Caps and labels
Filling and packaging
Transportation
Storage
Refrigeration
Distribution margins
Retail margins
Marketing
Disposal of the empty package
The citizen is therefore not merely paying for water. The citizen is financing an entire disposable packaging and distribution chain.
The Bottled-Water Paradox
A city may already operate:
A water source
A treatment plant
A transmission system
Reservoirs
A distribution network
Water-testing laboratories
Yet the same city may fail to provide trusted drinking water in public spaces.
This gap creates a market for packaged water.
When people do not trust public tap water, or cannot find a public refill point, they purchase bottled water even where a municipal network already exists. The United Nations University reported that global bottled-water sales were approaching US$ 270 billion and approximately 350 billion litres. It also estimated that around 600 billion plastic bottles generate approximately 25 million tonnes of plastic waste that is not recycled and is instead landfilled or disposed of as unregulated waste. The report warned that expansion of bottled-water markets can divert attention and resources from the development of reliable public water systems.
The sustainable response is not merely to improve bottle recycling.
The priority should be to prevent the bottle from becoming necessary.
The best single-use water bottle is the bottle that never needs to be manufactured.
Free Water as a Plastic-Waste Prevention Strategy
Public refill systems reduce plastic waste at the source. This is more effective than depending only on:
Segregation after consumption
Collection from streets and drains
Material recovery facilities
Recycling
Waste-to-energy
Landfilling
A reusable bottle may be filled hundreds of times. A municipal refill point replaces repeated cycles of:
Manufacturing a bottle
Transporting it
Refrigerating it
Selling it
Collecting it
Sorting it
Recycling or disposing of it
The Free Water model therefore belongs not only in the water-supply budget. It also belongs within:
Solid-waste management
Plastic-waste prevention
Climate action
Public health
Heat-action planning
Sustainable transport
Tourism infrastructure
Smart City planning
The Free Water for Indian Smart Cities Vision
The 2022 Free Water proposal recognised that safe water could not be guaranteed merely by extracting more freshwater. It proposed the integration of:
Surface water
Groundwater
Treated wastewater
Rainwater
Stormwater
Water bodies
Green infrastructure
Grey infrastructure
Community participation
The One Water Approach gives equal planning importance to all water streams, although not every stream requires the same treatment or is suitable for the same use. Potable water should be prioritised for:
Drinking
Cooking
Essential hygiene
Public hydration
Appropriately treated non-potable water can serve:
Industrial cooling
Construction
Landscaping
Road cleaning
Sewer flushing
Selected agricultural applications
Certain municipal uses
The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) 2.0 promotes 24x7 Drink from Tap (DfT) systems, reduction of non-revenue water below 20%, and reuse of treated wastewater to meet at least 20% of total city water demand and 40% of industrial water demand at the state level. It also supports Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), household connections, tertiary treatment, and end-to-end reuse planning.
Drink from Tap is the Foundation
Public fountains cannot solve the problem if the water reaching them is not consistently safe.
The Free Water model must therefore begin with DfT.
Drink from Tap means that water supplied at the consumer’s tap can be used directly for drinking and cooking without additional household boiling, filtration or treatment. India’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) published the revised "Manual on Water Supply and Treatment Systems - Drink from Tap" in March 2024. The framework addresses engineering, planning, design, implementation, operation, and management of reliable potable water systems. A credible DfT system requires:
Reliable treatment
Continuous positive pressure
Hydraulic zoning
District Metered Areas
Bulk and consumer metering
Leak detection
SCADA
Residual-disinfectant monitoring
Laboratory surveillance
Rapid isolation of contamination
Transparent water-quality disclosure
Preventive maintenance
Puri: An Indian Drink from Tap Model
Puri is one of India’s most important Drink from Tap demonstrations. The Government of India case study states that Puri implemented citywide continuous pressurised supply so that water at the consumer tap could be used directly for drinking and cooking without further treatment. The project covered approximately:
2.5 lakh people
32,017 households
32 wards
19 operational zones
19 District Metered Areas
275 kilometres of distribution pipelines
The system was supported by metering, Geographic Information System (GIS), SCADA, mobile water-quality monitoring, infrastructure rehabilitation and community participation through Jal Sathis. The case study reported that non-revenue water was reduced from approximately 54% to 15%. It concluded that the water required for a managed 24x7 system could be lower than that required by an intermittent system because leakage and unaccounted consumption were controlled.
How Was Puri Financed?
The reported combined infrastructure cost was INR 224 crore:
Programme | Central funding | State funding | Total |
JNNURM | INR 72 crore | INR 18 crore | INR 90 crore |
AMRUT | INR 44 crore | INR 44 crore | INR 88 crore |
Sujal-Drink from Tap | Nil | INR 46 crore | INR 46 crore |
Total | INR 116 crore | INR 108 crore | INR 224 crore |
This is directly relevant to the Free Water concept. The capital infrastructure was developed through public funds contributed by central and state governments rather than by selling packaged drinking water to citizens. Puri provides the network-quality model.
Public fountains and refill stations can provide the next layer of universal access.
Existing City Models
Paris: Free Water as a Public Right
Paris has more than 1,300 public fountains offering free drinking water in streets, squares, parks and gardens. The network is supplied and maintained by Eau de Paris, the city’s public water operator. It is supplemented by approximately 1,500 participating businesses that provide free water refills. The fountain network includes:
Historic Wallace fountains
Bottle-refilling points
Sparkling-water fountains
Accessible modern fountains
Combined drinking-and-misting fountains
Paris also operates 120 drinking-and-misting fountains as part of its response to heat and public-space requirements.
Lesson for India from Paris
Public fountains should be:
Owned or formally adopted by the water utility
Included in the utility asset register
Connected to the regulated potable network
Mapped digitally
Maintained as public-health infrastructure
Available to vulnerable populations
Integrated into heat-action planning
London: Public Funding Plus Long-Term Utility Maintenance
London developed a network of 110 public drinking fountains in busy and accessible areas. The programme was created to provide free tap water and reduce dependence on single-use plastic bottles. More than 4,500 businesses also participate in the city’s refill network. London’s 2024-25 annual report stated that the 110-fountain network had helped avoid more than 7.5 million single-use plastic bottles. The funding model is especially relevant:
The Mayor initially allocated £ 5 million.
Thames Water’s estimated contribution was £ 17.5 million over 25 years.
Thames Water owns the fountains.
Thames Water funds cleaning and maintenance for at least 25 years.
Estimated maintenance and cleaning expenditure was approximately £ 700,000 annually across the network.
Earlier planning documents also required meters so fountain usage and plastic displacement outcomes could be monitored.
Lesson for India from London
A capital grant alone is not enough. The funding structure should secure:
Asset ownership
Water connections
Metering
Cleaning
Testing
Repairs
Spare parts
Drainage maintenance
Monitoring
Public communication
A multiyear Operation and Maintenance (O&M) obligation
Rome and Acea Water Houses
Acea’s Water Houses are modern public dispensers offering free still and sparkling water. The units are located near:
Metro stations
Public squares
Parks
Tourist destinations
High-footfall areas
They may include digital displays, geolocation and charging facilities.
In 2024, Acea reported that around 430 Water Houses across its operating regions distributed more than 110 million litres of still and sparkling water free of charge each year. An Italian peer-reviewed study comparing a municipal water kiosk with bottled water concluded that the kiosk model was more efficient in economic and environmental terms. It examined Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) waste, carbon emissions, transport, consumer costs and water quality.
Lesson for India from Rome
A Water House can be suitable for:
Railway stations
Bus terminals
Municipal markets
Major public parks
Tourist destinations
University campuses
Pilgrimage centres
The Indian model should provide normal potable water free of charge. Chilling and optional carbonation may be included according to climate, demand and public policy, without converting the basic service into a commercial water outlet.
Vienna: Free Fountains for Plastic Prevention and Heat Resilience
Vienna’s current municipal information reports around 1,800 drinking fountains under city management. The fountains include:
Historic public taps
Modern stainless-steel fountains
Mobile drinking fountains
Hydrant-mounted drinking and misting units
The city explicitly links its public fountain network to free refreshment and avoidance of plastic waste from bottled drinks.
Lesson for India from Vienna
Public-water infrastructure should be prioritised using:
Heat-vulnerability maps
Pedestrian footfall
Public-transport usage
Distance from existing drinking-water points
Market and labour locations
Social-vulnerability indicators
Tourism and event demand
New York City: Mobile Water-on-the-Go
New York City’s Water-on-the-Go programme used portable drinking fountains at public plazas, parks, pedestrian areas and special events. In 2012, the city reported more than 500,000 visits to Water-on-the-Go stations deployed across approximately 30 rotating locations. The programme was presented as a free alternative to bottled water and sugary beverages. New York City Parks also maintains more than 3,500 outdoor drinking fountains and has implemented lead-testing programmes for these assets.
Lesson for India from New York City
Mobile public-water units could serve:
Heatwaves
Melas
Religious gatherings
Marathons
Festivals
Public rallies
Disaster response
Temporary labour settlements
Seasonal tourist areas
A city can test demand through mobile units before constructing permanent stations.
Washington, DC: A Business-Based Free Refill Network
The District of Columbia (DC) Water partnered with restaurants and other establishments to provide free refills to anyone carrying a reusable bottle. The network was created to:
Increase public access to tap water
Reduce plastic litter
Save users money
Promote confidence in municipal water
The programme grew to hundreds of participating locations in the metropolitan region.
Lesson for India from Washington
Municipal corporations can create a verified Free Water Refill Partner network involving:
Cafés
Hotels
Restaurants
Petrol stations
Shopping centres
Offices
Educational institutions
Government buildings
No purchase should be required to receive a refill.
What Studies Found
New York School Water Dispensers
New York City installed visible, cooled, and high-flow water dispensers in school cafeterias. Research covering 1,227 schools and more than 1.06 million students found that installation was associated with small reductions in standardised body mass index and reductions of 0.9 and 0.6 percentage points in the probability of boys and girls, respectively, being overweight. The researchers treated these as associations rather than proof that water dispensers alone caused the outcome.
Cost-Benefit Findings
A subsequent modelling study estimated:
Indicator | Modelled result |
Incremental programme cost | US$ 18 per student |
Estimated economic benefit | US$ 192 per student |
Estimated net benefit | US$ 174 per student |
Estimated savings per dollar spent | US$ 14.50 |
The model included dispenser purchase and maintenance and projected economic benefits associated with overweight cases potentially avoided. These values are based on American conditions and cannot be directly applied to India. They demonstrate, however, that free public-water access can create economic value beyond the cost of the water supplied. A more recent US school cost analysis estimated an annualised school-level water-access intervention cost of approximately US$ 11 per student after accounting for the useful life of installed stations and dispensers.
The Proposed Indian Smart City Model
The recommended Free Water system should contain six layers.
Layer 1: Drink from Tap Network
The city must first guarantee:
Safe treatment
Continuous or reliably pressurised supply
Network integrity
Residual disinfection
Real-time monitoring
Public water-quality disclosure
Layer 2: Free Household Essential Water
Every household should receive sufficient safe water for essential human use without a separate volumetric water charge. The service cost should be paid collectively through public budgets funded by existing taxation. Metering should still be retained for:
Leak detection
Demand planning
Network balancing
Identification of abnormal consumption
Prevention of illegal connections
Water accounting
A meter does not necessarily require a bill. It is also an engineering and accountability instrument.
Layer 3: Free Public Refill Network
The city should install a mix of:
Basic drinking fountains
Bottle fillers
Chilled hydration stations
Water Houses
Mobile water units
Business refill partners
Layer 4: One Water Resource Management
Potable water should be protected by shifting suitable non-potable uses toward:
Treated wastewater
Rainwater
Stormwater
Recycled water
Layer 5: Plastic-Waste Prevention
The city should progressively replace routine procurement of disposable bottled water in:
Municipal offices
Council meetings
Public events
Government conferences
Schools
Hospitals
Public facilities
Reusable glasses, bottles and municipal refill dispensers should become the default.
Layer 6: Public Performance Dashboard
Citizens should be able to view:
Fountain locations
Current operating status
Latest water-quality results
Litres dispensed
Complaints reported
Complaints resolved
Downtime
Cleaning compliance
Estimated bottles avoided
Types of Public Water Infrastructure
Model A: Basic Public Drinking Tap
Suitable for parks, markets and neighbourhood spaces. Minimum features:
Potable municipal connection
Meter
Push-button or pedal operation
Automatic shutoff
Bottle-filling outlet
Backflow protection
Drainage
Accessible height
Quick Response (QR) fault reporting
Model B: Chilled Bottle-Filling Station
Suitable for schools, hospitals and transport hubs. Additional features:
Chilling
High-flow refill
Usage counter
Child-accessible outlet
Wheelchair-accessible outlet
Water-quality display
Remote monitoring
Model C: Smart Water House
Suitable for major high-footfall sites. It may include:
Free ambient water
Free chilled water
Still water
Controlled sparkling-water provision
Digital quality results
Refill counter
Solar generation where feasible
Public information display
Model D: Mobile Hydration Unit
Suitable for temporary or seasonal requirements.
Model E: Free Refill Partner
An existing business or institution supplies free tap-water refills using its approved potable connection.
How Can Free Water Be Funded Without Selling Water?
1. Existing Municipal and Government Tax Revenues
The city may allocate funds through its approved annual budget from:
Property-tax revenue
State tax devolution
Central and state grants
General municipal revenue
Public-health allocations
Urban-development allocations
This requires normal legislative and budgetary approval, but it does not require a separate water payment from the citizen.
2. Existing Water and Sanitation Programmes
AMRUT 2.0 provides a public-funding framework for:
Household connections
Distribution improvement
24x7 supply
DfT
SCADA
Wastewater reuse
Water-body rejuvenation
The mission’s indicative central funding included INR 35,250 crore for water-supply projects and INR 27,600 crore for sewerage and septage management.
3. Redirect Government Bottled-Water Expenditure
Government departments and public institutions already spend money on:
Bottled water
Jar water
Disposable cups
Storage
Delivery
Waste collection
A portion of this recurring procurement expenditure can be redirected toward:
Refill stations
Washable bottles
Glassware
Water testing
O&M contracts
4. Savings from Lower Non-Revenue Water
Reducing leakage lowers:
Water abstraction
Treatment chemical consumption
Pumping energy
Emergency repair expenditure
Source-augmentation requirements
These are avoided costs rather than water-sale revenue.
5. Solid-Waste Management Savings
Fewer bottles can reduce expenditure on:
Street sweeping
Drain cleaning
Waste transport
Sorting
Material recovery
Disposal
6. Public-Health and Heat-Action Budgets
Public fountains produce benefits relevant to health departments and heat-action plans.
7. Extended Producer Responsibility Contributions
Plastic producers and brand owners already have obligations under India’s plastic-waste management framework. Where legally permissible, verified Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and environmental contributions may support reusable public-water infrastructure, provided water is not converted into an advertising commodity.
8. CSR for Capital - Public Funding for Continuity
The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) may support:
Initial equipment
Reusable bottles
Public education
School hydration stations
However, no CSR fountain should be installed without a publicly secured long-term O&M plan.
The Self-Sustainability Equation
The model should be evaluated as:
Public value created and costs avoided should be greater than or equal to lifecycle cost of universal drinking-water access
Public value includes:
Bottled-water expenditure avoided by citizens
Plastic waste prevented
Municipal waste-management savings
Reduced dependence on emergency supplies
Improved hydration
Heat resilience
Greater public confidence
Reduced household purifier expenditure
Improved access for low-income users
Reduced environmental burden
Self-sustainability should not be measured by water sales. It should be measured by whether the social, environmental and fiscal value of the service justifies and sustains its lifecycle expenditure.
What the Model Must Not Become
Free Water must not become:
Unlimited groundwater extraction
Unmonitored household leakage
A substitute for network rehabilitation
Advertising-supported disposable bottled water
A one-time fountain installation drive
A network without water-quality testing
A programme excluding informal settlements
A political promise without budget allocation
A system in which water is free but the tap never works
Recommended Pilot for an Indian Smart City
A pilot city should begin with:
One Drink from Tap District Metered Area
One low-income residential cluster
One municipal school cluster
One major transport hub
One public park
One market or labour congregation area
One tourist or pilgrimage location
One mobile heatwave hydration unit
One verified business-refill network
One public water-quality dashboard
The pilot should operate for at least 12 months before citywide scaling.
Performance Indicators
The city should publish:
Water-quality compliance
Number of functional points
Litres dispensed
Cost per litre safely dispensed
Fountain uptime
Average repair time
Cleaning compliance
Number of registered refill partners
Estimated bottled-water purchases avoided
Estimated plastic bottles avoided
Citizen satisfaction
Coverage of vulnerable populations
Non-Revenue Water (NRW) reduction
Energy consumption
Treated wastewater reused
From Dreamer to Doer
In 2022, the Free Water proposal was a dream. It imagined a city where water would not be treated merely as a product and where every water stream would be conserved and reused. Today, the pathway is clearer:
One Water secures the resource.
Drink from Tap secures the quality.
Public fountains secure access.
Tax-funded public service secures equality.
Lifecycle planning secures continuity.
Reusable bottles prevent plastic waste.
The purpose is not to compete with bottled-water companies. The purpose is to make routine bottled-water dependence unnecessary. Bottled water should remain available for emergencies and exceptional circumstances, not become the everyday price citizens pay because public drinking-water infrastructure is missing.
The Way Forward
The citizen already contributes to the functioning of the city.
Safe drinking water should be one of the basic services returned through that collective contribution.
No child should have to purchase a bottle of water at school.
No outdoor worker should have to choose between thirst and spending part of a daily wage.
No commuter should have to buy a new plastic bottle every time a reusable bottle becomes empty.
No tourist should have to generate plastic waste merely to access safe water.
No city should collect discarded bottles from drains while failing to provide public refill points.
The question is no longer:
Can India provide Free Water?
The question is:
Which Indian Smart City will be the first to treat safe drinking water as a universal, tax-funded and plastic-free public service?
That is the journey:
From Dreamer to Doer
EnviroChem Services’ Role
EnviroChem Services (OPC) Pvt. Ltd. supports urban local bodies, utilities, institutions and development partners through:
Drink from Tap feasibility studies
City Water Balance Plans
City Water Action Plans
Detailed Project Reports
Hydraulic modelling
District Metered Areas
Water-treatment planning
SCADA and instrumentation
Non-revenue-water reduction
Public-fountain planning
Bottle-filling-station design
Smart Water House design
Mobile hydration systems
Water-quality monitoring
Treated-wastewater reuse
Stormwater management
Lifecycle costing
Public-service funding models
Performance monitoring
EnviroChem Services remains committed to:
Engineering Environment for Better Tomorrow.
Call to Action
EnviroChem Services (OPC) Pvt. Ltd. invites urban local bodies, Smart City agencies, water utilities, academic institutions, public-health organisations and responsible development partners to collaborate on a Free Water pilot. Let us move:
From bottled water to public water.
From waste collection to waste prevention.
From isolated projects to One Water.
From Dreamer to Doer.
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