Pune entrepreneur Rahul Pathak’s company Aquaplus Water Purifiers Pvt Ltd is using a unique filter to provide safe drinking water to millions across the world.
When Rahul Pathak decided to quit his engineering studies in 1993 and start marketing water purifiers, he imagined it would be akin to any other ordinary business. But today, his company Aquaplus Water Purifiers (Pvt) Ltd is reaching the remotest corners of not just India, but also the world, with timely intervention after natural disasters, and providing millions of people with safe drinking water.
This Pune-based entrepreneur’s innovation can purify 7,000 litres of water in 10 hours without using electricity. It can clean water using gravity, a hand pump, or a fuel-driven motor, depending on the availability of resources.
Rahul’s first project was the 2005 Jammu-Kashmir earthquake, where he donated some purifiers to the Army, who found his innovation highly useful. This caught the attention of Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief (REDR), a group of engineering professionals who volunteer for relief efforts. From then on, the filters were added to the list of disaster relief items.
Rahul’s company now sends filters to countries like the UK, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Mongolia and many more.
In the past 17 years, his purifiers have been installed in 1,500 locations including 50 disaster-hit areas.
Watch the story of how Rahul created these innovative filters, which cost 1/3rd the amount when compared to conventional filters:
