Your phone can now assist in managing water pumps
Wastage of water is a curse in rural India. Much of the scarcity has
been because of wrong usage, although drought and unseasonal rainfalls too have a major impact.
Now, technology may be coming to tackle this manmade crisis. Micro Technologies (India), an IT-based security solutions developer based in Navi Mumbai, has come up with a solution that claims to help farmers reduce water wastage significantly.
The company has launched a device Micro Jai-Kisan that will help farmers remotely manage the motor pumps by using a phone. Developed on the basis of GSM technology, the farmer can turn the pump on or off and also know the status of the pump by a phone call from a GSM, STD phone, or even by sending an SMS, says P Sekhar, chairman and managing director of Micro Technologies.
Farmers usually have to make multiple trips to their farms to check if there is adequate electricity to turn on the pump to water their crops. According to estimates, about 87 per cent of utilisable water is used for agriculture in India compared to the world average of 69 per cent. The flood or flow irrigation method in the country results in more than 50 per cent of water wastage. Moreover, an estimated 213 billion cubic metre out of 690 billion cubic metre of surface water is wasted each month in India.
Water leakage, pilferage and wastage amounts to half of the total flow. Industry estimates value of water and wastewater market in India at Rs 4,700 crore. Nearly 20 per cent of the farmers are dependent on electric pumps for irrigation.
Around 25 per cent of total Gram Panchayats of any state of India have pump-based drinking or irrigation water supply facilities. This device will help them in reducing water leakage, pilferage and wastage, Sekhar explains.
The manufacturers have used a very simple technology to develop the system. “When we started developing the solution, we kept in mind that the end user is a farmer who might be illiterate. So if we are developing a solution for him, it should be simple and easy to use,” says chief information officer of the company, Nisha Menon.
The company has developed two models — one functions on the basis of SMS and the other on the basis of both SMS and phone call. At present, the products are undergoing pilot tests in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar.
