How we do it
How we choose our grid locations
Financial Sustainability
We need to be able to ensure a minimum volume of sales, so each site must meet a minimum market threshold.
If you want to know more about the financial feasibility of our project
Social Conditions
We select densely populated rural or peri-urban areas with a minimum 70-80 households living in a cluster. We also want to make sure the site is easily reachable by road so that we can transport construction materials.
Water Conditions
The technical feasibility of our grid is partially based on the condition of the groundwater, so water conditions are a key criteria for site selection. Groundwater most be of sufficient quality so as not to require filtration; be available year-round; and the Max TapWater grid may not deplete overall groundwater tables in the community.
Regulatory Priorities
Rural and peri-urban sites are our key sites. Compared to urban sites, rural and peri-urban locations are often subject to less planning and development regulations (e.g. on road cutting for network construction). We negotiate approval from the local government for the construction of a new grid.
How we are different
Low tech
Our grids are not technically complicated. They are quite simple and materials are locally sourced.
The innovation is the entrepreneurial model that works in small clusters of households and with a local entrepreneur who can co-invest. This builds long-term ownership.
The construction of our small sized grids is fast. It takes us only four months from start to finish, so our customers can access safe water quickly.
Low cost
Max TapWater grids have low operation and maintenance costs. It is the only model in Bangladesh that delivers 80-100 litres of water pp/day at a price affordable for low to middle income households.
This allows us to operate in underserved and remote communities.
scale
Piped water grids run by government or NGOs fail to scale up because they do not recover operational costs nor the capital investment. Private tubewells are expensive and only available to a limited group of rich customers.
Max TapWater is aimed to recover operational and capital investments, at a per capita cost that is lower than our competitors. After cost recovery, the profits from one grid will go towards financing the construction of the next.