Water ATM Booths Quench the Thirst of City Dwellers
Eklas Haque
Residents of Dhaka have long struggled to have access to purified drinking water; in the past, they had to spend a lot of money each month on filtered water or waste valuable gas boiling foul-smelling tap water. Dhaka WASA collaborated with the US-based social enterprise Drinkwell to provide advanced water ATM services around the capital in an effort to address this ongoing urban challenge. This cooperative effort has transformed the way that people obtain drinkable water, offering a dependable, reasonably priced, and technologically advanced replacement that helps homes from all socioeconomic levels.
Dhaka WASA provides the required infrastructure, including land, water sources, electrical connections, booth shelters, and drainage lines, as part of its collaborative social business initiative. Meanwhile, Drinkwell invests expenditures in its own technology, offering cutting-edge filter media, ATM dispensers, RFID cards, internet connectivity, security cameras, and operational software. Additionally, Drinkwell oversees technical assistance, maintenance, repairs, and part replacements, as well as the pay and festival bonuses of local booth operators. Revenues are divided between the two parties in accordance with their legal agreement.
As of right now, 295 of the 356 water ATMs that have been set up next to Dhaka WASA pump sites at key points, including Basabo, Mirpur, Uttara, Dayaganj, Badda, Bhatara, Fakirapool, Kamalapur, Gabtoli, and Bashundhara, are fully operational. Customers may easily get purified water at these easily accessible booths, which are open every day from 6:30 AM to 10:30 PM, for a small fee of only one taka per liter. Users just purchase an initial card for fifty taka, refill it with amounts ranging from ten to nine hundred ninety-nine taka, then touch their RFID card at the relevant machine to dispense.
Since the project’s launch in October 2016, which started in Fakirapool with Danish assistance, public trust and reliance on the system have increased significantly. The number of new cards sold each year increased from 3,615 in 2017 to 160,516 in 2025, with an additional 90,839 cards sold in the first seven months of the current year. Approximately 8.5 million cardholders are now connected to the rapidly developing water supply network due to this expansion, which raises total card sales to over 850,000.
Supply levels increased from just over 2.1 million liters in 2017 to an incredible 474.8 million liters by the end of 2025, clearly reflecting the growing customer demand. A stunning 274.9 million liters of purified water were supplied in only the first seven months of this year, with daily outputs exceeding 1.2 million liters and an average monthly supply of almost 39.3 million liters. Over 2.4 billion liters of pure drinking water have been effectively provided to capital residents since the initiative’s launch.
Dhaka WASA Managing Director Md. Aminul Islam emphasized the project’s success by saying that the purified water ATM booths are in excellent condition and that people are actively collecting water. The service is used for both low-income individuals and well-educated, financially stable families. He described the online-managed system as a modern and convenient digital payment structure, confirming with female consumers that they regularly receive water and are still completely happy with its highly controlled quality.
Mr. Jilani Milton, a resident of Gopibagh, shared this positive feeling when he told Daily Inqilab that using Wasa ATM cards to buy water is very simple and only costs one taka per liter. He also proposed that if every ward in the city had a booth, people would totally prevent water issues. He pointed out that although past generations had to put up with foul-smelling tap water that needed wasteful gas heating, the ATM system today provides easy access to clean water, greatly improving the convenience of daily living for citizens of the capital.
