Kind hearted mentor-investor Najeeba Zabeer’s Earth Fokus’ innovation Qua Mist, once fitted to your tap, reduces water to a fine mist, cutting down on consumption
Abdullah ibn Amr reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, passed by Sa’d while he was performing ablution. The Prophet said, “What is this excess?” Sa’d said, “Is there excess with water in ablution?” The Prophet said, “Yes, even if you were on the banks of a flowing river.”Source: Sunan Ibn Mājah 425
Gujarat, the state synonymous with a ‘developmental model’, is facing the worst water crisis in its history. With 5% population of the country, Gujarat has accessibility to just 2% of the country’s water resources. While the state is unable to draw ground water because of the rocky profile of a widespread terrain, the variation in rainfall adds to the woes of the populace. But Chennai shows the way to reduce water use. Chennai Based Mrs. Najeeba Zabeer, Arun Subramaniam, and their team has done exemplary work in this field.
Chennai has been the hot topic of the year with its news-making drought. The water scarcity turned so huge in last June that even many big IT companies had to shut their doors for employees and ask them to work from home instead. On 19 June 2019, Chennai city officials declared that “Day Zero”, or the day when almost no water is left, had been reached.
In fact, Southwest Monsoon is not the rainiest season for Chennai. This is when the city receives a meagre 20% of its total precipitation for the year. Moreover, Chennai is located in the rain shadow area and doesn’t see much rains in this season. Taking a look at the figures, the city receives 55.8 mm in June, 103.8 mm in July and 126.8 mm in the month of August. This is comparatively very less than the other areas of the country. Looking ahead at the forecast; the remaining days of August will only see light rains. No fresh weather system seems to be affecting the region at present. Therefore, no significant rainfall is forecast for Chennai as of now.
In this difficult situation, Earth Fokus’ innovation Qua Mist, once fitted to your tap, reduces water to a fine mist, cutting down on consumption. This device that cuts water use by over 90%.
Turns out, your average water tap releases as much as six to 10 litres of water per minute. With the Qua Mist you can cut that down to about 600 ml per minute. Innovated by Earth Fokus, a city-based startup that works towards finding sustainable solutions to environmental problems, Qua Mist is the first of its products. Launched in 2017, the products however have gained a lot of traction in the last couple of months as the city grapples with a drought. Says Arun Subramaniam, the founder, “We’ve sold about three times more in the last two months than we did in the last two years put together.”
The device is easy to install. It comprises a lead-free brass aerator that fits into the tap along with a washer. It has a small spout to which one attaches a triangular cap with a 1 mm hole. This cap can be twisted to adjust the flow of the water. At its tightest, the device reduces the water flow to a fine spray, almost like mist.
The idea for Qua mist emerged when Arun was approached by his neighbour and now mentor Najeeba Zabeer to put together a device to reduce the amount of water wasted in her kitchen. “I was on a six month break after college back then and thought I’d give it a try. The first prototype I made was using a garden sprinkler that I bought online. Ever since, I’ve been working on it with my team. We’ve constantly been making iterations and have now managed to create a compact version that can be used by anybody. It can be easily installed; there’s no need of a plumber,” says Arun, who holds a degree in Automobile Engineering.
Once the product took shape, they decided to go commercial with it. Arun then set up Earth Fokus along with two friends Roshan Karthik and Sathish Hari Babu. Najeeba went on to invest in the company and help with her expertise. As the trio continued testing the product, Sathish, who has a background in Aerospace Engineering helped the team with simulating the water flow using cutting edge technology. “That helped us perfect the design,” says Arun.
Finding a manufacturer proved to be a huge challenge for the team. It took them eight months to find one and are now looking for more as they’re scaling up manufacturing given the increase in demand.”We should create awareness among people about judicious water management following the experiences of Cape Town, South Africa, through concepts like Day Zero. ” says Mrs. Najeeba zabeer.
Corporates such as Cognizant, Accenture, HCL, TCS, Wipro, and Ford are looking to install the water savers in their offices. In fact, Cognizant was one of their first clients and has decided to install their products in all its offices across the country. “For the corporates, we’ve created Eco Mist, which is essentially the same product, but has no external cap. It fits entirely inside the tap. Once Cognizant began using our product, they’ve been managing to save seven kilo litres of water per day per building. That’s a significant amount of water being saved,” says Arun.
The team uses lead-free brass. “This isn’t readily available, so we order all the raw material. The idea is to avoid lead percolating into the water over time. Also there’s no clogging. The only problem we face in Chennai is scaling, given the hard water we get. That too can easily be cleaned using a combination of lime and vinegar,” says Roshan.
The one thing that both Qua Mist and Eco Mist need in order to work well is a high pressure flow of water; which isn’t a problem in most buildings these days since they use pressure pump systems.
Earth Fokus has also been approached by a lot of apartment associations to see if it can be installed. “We’re already working on our next product, which is also directed towards cutting water consumption. As a company though, we aim to work towards creating products that encourage sustainability and conservation. It could have to do with anything from water, earth, to air. We’re all about working towards improving the planet. We want our products to change mindsets, become a habit, just like a smartphone or tablet,” says Arun. Earth Fokus ships all over India.For details, visit earthfokus.com.( courtesy,The hindu)
