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KATHMANDU, MARCH 24

Technology is a critical aspect of improving the availability and accessibility of clean water around the world.

Many of us start our day by reaching for a glass of water, a ritual said to flush out toxins. For others, even before the crack of dawn, they are already waiting – desperately – for a pail of water, a daily ration to satisfy basic needs.

Water is at once bountiful and scarce. Primary school has ingrained in us that our planet is about 70 percent water, and that through its cycle, water is eternally recurring. This makes it difficult for most of us to believe that water is now scarce and that a growing number of people are faced with the reality of zero water. Cape Town narrowly avoided this a year ago, and in Chennai today four of its main reservoirs are almost completely dry.

In developing countries in Asia, water utilities face three major issues: first, they have to manage diminishing resources and infrastructure that is largely spread out, often dilapidated and not well located and identified.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 25, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.