Full Stack Water Solutions for India
Proprietary Nanotechnology.
Turnkey Infrastructure.
Last Mile Access.
Drinkwell delivers reliable drinking water infrastructure in partnership with public authorities and institutional partners across India. The company designs, deploys, and operates long-life systems aligned with Indian regulatory, procurement, and service-delivery frameworks.
400+
Systems Deployed
1.2m+
People Served
6
States Active
2015
Operating Since
Solutions designed for India’s water challenges
Drinkwell delivers end-to-end drinking water solutions that address arsenic, fluoride, iron, bacteria, TDS, and other contaminants across rural, peri-urban, and institutional contexts. Systems are designed for long service life, low waste generation, and reliable operation under Indian field conditions.
Piped Drinking Water Systems
Utility-integrated and campus-scale drinking water systems designed for continuous, regulated service delivery.
These systems are deployed where centralized or semi-centralized distribution is feasible and are engineered to meet national drinking water standards while operating reliably under variable source water conditions.
Best for
Multi-village Piped Water Schemes
Municipal Utilities
Industrial and institutional campuses
83 m3/hr Arsenic Iron Removal System Piped Drinking Water Infrastructure
Jhitkipota, Barasat, West Bengal
Funded by: West Bengal Public Health Engineering Department
Decentralized, managed drinking water systems that provide reliable access in dense urban and peri-urban environments. Drinkwell’s community systems combine treatment, automated dispensing, digital monitoring, and long-term operations to deliver regulated service where full piped coverage is constrained or evolving.
Best for
High-demand community areas (typically at least 200 households in 5 km radius)
Informal settlements and dense neighborhoods
Public–private partnership (PPP) models
Pay-per-use or subsidized service delivery
Community Drinking Water Systems (Water ATMs)
1 m3/hr Solar-powered Arsenic Iron Removal System
Community Drinking Water System
Kothora, Assam.
Funded by: Assam Public Health Engineering Department
Household & Point-of-Use Systems
Domestic, household-level systems designed for household, institutional, and transitional use cases. These systems provide safe drinking water in settings where centralized or community systems are unavailable, impractical, or temporarily disrupted.
Best for
Households and small institutions
Schools and healthcare facilities
Emergency and disaster response
Interim access during infrastructure development
5 Liters Per Hour Household Arsenic Iron Removal System
Household Water Filter
Funded by: Tata Trusts
Technology
HIX Overview
HIX (Hybrid Ion Exchange) is a patented resin platform engineered for the selective removal of inorganic contaminants from complex water sources. The technology combines zirconium-based adsorption with ion-exchange functionality to deliver high selectivity, long operational life, and regenerability under field conditions.
HIX resins are designed for deployment in public and institutional drinking water systems where reliability, durability, and regulatory compliance are critical.
What HIX Removes
HIX resins are designed to selectively remove the following contaminants commonly encountered in challenging water matrices, including groundwater and other complex source waters:
Arsenic
Fluoride
Phosphate
Uranium
Lead
Certain process configurations also address sulfate and silica-related fouling challenges.
Why HIX is different
① Selectivity
Zirconium oxide nanoparticles provide high affinity for arsenic and fluoride relative to competing ions. Maintains arsenic and fluoride removal efficiency in the presence of competing ions such as sulfate and phosphate, enabling stable performance across variable source waters.
② Longevity
Engineered for regeneration and reuse, resulting in operational lifetimes of approximately 5–10 years and reduced media replacement compared to conventional treatment materials.
③ Reduced Waste
Extended service life and regenerability significantly reduce spent media and concentrate disposal requirements over the system lifecycle, lowering waste generation in constrained environments.
Product Data Sheets
To learn more about the HIX line of resins view our product data sheets here:
Drinkwell 20L Domestic Iron, Arsenic/Fluoride Removal Water Filter Data Sheet
Drinkwell 20L Domestic Iron, Arsenic/Fluoride Removal Water Filter User Manual
Endorsements
HIX has been tested in both lab and real world field environments with endorsement from the following:
Products
Treatment Media (Standalone Supply Available)
Drinkwell’s treatment media are engineered for deployment across diverse water chemistries and operating environments. These materials are supplied both as part of Drinkwell-designed systems and as standalone media to qualified utilities, EPCs, OEMs, and system integrators for new installations, retrofits, and performance upgrades.
HIX™ Treatment Media Platform
Drinkwell manufactures and supplies Hybrid Ion Exchange (HIX™) treatment media engineered for selective contaminant removal, long service life, and low waste generation under real-world operating conditions.
HIX media are supplied:
As part of Drinkwell-designed systems, and
Directly to utilities, EPCs, OEMs, and system integrators for new installations, retrofits, and performance upgrades.
Media variants include
HIX-Nano™ 100+ — Arsenic, iron, uranium
HIX-Nano™ 200+ — Fluoride
HIX-Nano™ 300 — Hardness
HIX-Nano™ 400 — Nitrate
HIX-Nano™ 500 — Ammonia
All media are regenerable and reusable, enabling extended service life and reduced lifecycle waste compared to conventional treatment materials. Treatment media are supplied subject to technical qualification and application review.
System Platforms & Components
Modular Treatment Plants & Skids
Skid-mounted and modular treatment platforms configurable across a wide range of capacities and water quality conditions, used for both new deployments and system retrofits.
Hybrid RO (HIX-RO™) Systems
Integrated pretreatment and reverse osmosis platforms designed for higher recovery and lower reject volumes where TDS reduction is required.
Water ATMs & Dispensing Units
Automated drinking water dispensing systems with digital metering, access control, and remote monitoring for transparent service delivery.
Household & Point-of-Use Systems
Gravity-based and non-electric treatment systems for households, schools, healthcare facilities, and emergency contexts.
Disinfection & Electrochemical Systems
Electro-chlorination and electro-coagulation systems for drinking water disinfection and specialized treatment applications.
Wastewater & Effluent Treatment Systems
Effluent and sewage treatment systems designed to meet regulatory discharge and reuse standards.
System Retrofit & Performance Upgrades
Drinkwell supplies treatment media, components, and technical support to upgrade underperforming or non-compliant systems, improving water quality, recovery, and operational reliability without full system replacement.
News & Events
Coverage, announcements, and public events related to Drinkwell’s work in India, including system deployments, institutional partnerships, and participation in sector forums.
About
Leadership & Governance
Board of Directors
Drinkwell India’s Board provides governance oversight and strategic direction across technology development, public-sector partnerships, and long-term operational performance.
Minhaj Chowdhury
Director
Minhaj Chowdhury is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Drinkwell. As a Fulbright Fellow, he conducted early research on household willingness to pay for safe drinking water—work that has informed Drinkwell’s operating and growth strategy since inception.
Prior to founding Drinkwell, Minhaj worked as a consultant with The Exeter Group, where he supported product development for state-based health insurance exchanges and led project management for a large non-profit operational turnaround with an annual budget exceeding $3 billion.
Minhaj holds a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and has received multiple honors, including recognition from the U.S. State Department, SXSW, Echoing Green, Forbes 30 Under 30 (Social Entrepreneurship), and Ashoka.
Dr. Mike German
Director
Dr. Mike German is a Co-Founder and Director of Drinkwell with a background in environmental engineering and water treatment research. As a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow to India, his research focused on social business models addressing arsenic and fluoride contamination across the Indian sub-continent.
Mike has contributed directly to the development of Drinkwell’s proprietary resin technology through his work in the SenGupta Research Lab. His research on scalable water treatment and social enterprise models has been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
He holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Lehigh University and a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Sudip Sarkar
Director
Sudip Sarkar serves as Director for Drinkwell India and Chief Coordination Officer, bringing over a decade of experience in the drinking water sector. He began his career at Drinkwell as an intern while studying at St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and later during his MBA at Heritage Business School.
Over the course of his tenure, Sudip has led the development of key institutional partnerships with Tata Trusts, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, WaterAid, and multiple State Public Health Engineering Departments, including West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, and Madhya Pradesh. He currently leads a team of more than 20 professionals in India and has played a central role in achieving operating profitability for the company over the past four fiscal years.
History
Drinkwell’s origins trace back to the U.S. Fulbright Fellowship program, through which Minhaj Chowdhury, Dr. Arup K. SenGupta of Lehigh University, and Dr. Mike German, then PhD student of Dr. SenGupta, first connected around a shared focus on addressing arsenic and fluoride contamination in South Asia. As a Fulbright Fellow to Bangladesh, Minhaj conducted research on household willingness to pay for safe drinking water, while Dr. SenGupta and Mike were pursuing Fulbright Fellowships in India on advancing ion-exchange technologies for groundwater treatment. Dr. Mike German worked closely with Dr. SenGupta to develop and field-test what would become Drinkwell’s proprietary HIX™ treatment media. These early collaborations laid the technical, operational, and public-health foundation for Drinkwell’s systems-based approach to drinking water delivery across the region.
Contact Us
Head Office:
Khalpole, Hemkunda Estates
Budge Budge Trunk Rd
Kolkata, West Bengal 700141