OREANDA-NEWS. Tata Swach, Tata Chemicals’ water purifier, successfully concluded its endeavour of providing pure and safe drinking water, at no cost, to all Maha Kumbh Mela pilgrims in Allahabad for the entire duration of the event, which took place from January 10, 2013 to March 10, 2013. It served almost a half a million litres of safe drinking water to over two million devotees. For this initiative, Tata Swach had collaborated with the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Jal Nigam Board and set up 28 kiosks and 300 units of the Tata Swach nanotech water purifiers across the holy site.

Speaking on the success of this initiative, Ashvini Hiran, COO, consumer products division, Tata Chemicals, said, “As a Tata group company, we have always followed the ethos of giving back to the community. We, at Tata Swach, feel privileged to be able to provide safe drinking water free-of-cost to the pilgrims at this holy Maha Kumbh Mela, as our small contribution to this mammoth congregation of humanity. We are happy that our tie-up with the UP Jal Nigam Board in this public- private partnership initiative was fruitful.”

The massive effort was made possible as Tata Swach is effortless to operate, easy to clean and maintain, and also convenient to use as it does not require electricity or running water for its operation.

Ensuring critical infrastructure like safe drinking water is of paramount importance at such gatherings. Any oversight in this aspect can be the cause of epidemic breakout of water borne diseases like cholera, diarrhea, typhoid, etc. Having an assured source of safe drinking water for the millions of devotees is thereby critical in the list of the governing bodies.

Launched in 2009, Tata Swach is a product that was innovated keeping in mind the health of consumers. The need for something as basic as clean drinking water was loud and clear when the product was launched. So was the need for a product that can provide clean drinking water to people across the economic strata.

Tata Swach identified the Maha Kumbh Mela as an ideal platform to connect with people, educate them about pure and safe drinking water, as well as ensure the health and safety of the pilgrims attending the mela. The brand team undertook the huge effort by providing pure drinking water at no cost to all the pilgrims at this religious gathering held every 12 years on the banks of the 'sangam' which is visited by millions of pilgrims from India and across the globe.

VP Singh, chief engineer, UP Jal Nigam Board, commented, “We are glad that Tata Chemicals came forward to support this public service initiative. Unsafe water is the leading cause of waterborne diseases like cholera and typhoid that may affect the health of pilgrims. It is our endeavour to ensure the health and safety of the devotees attending the mela.”

Tata Swach uses state-of-the-art silver-nanotechnology developed indigenously at the Tata Innovation Centre in Pune to provide pure and safe drinking water. It purifies water without the use of any harmful chemicals and meets the most stringent international water purification norms and guidelines. Tata Swach is also the winner of the Product of the Year - 2012 award, being voted as the topmost purifier by over 30,000 consumers across 36 cities in a survey conducted by Nielsen.