MIT Global Entrepreneurship Lab
Team #15: WaterPyramid
Destination: Rajasthan, India


I've been working with a team of 3 students this fall on a product called the WaterPyramid. Created by a Dutch entrepreneur, Martijn Nitzsche, this is a large-scale technology that acts as both a rainwater harvesting and solar distillation facility. The product is designed to produce drinking water for small communities of 500-1,000 people. The WaterPyramid will produce distilled water in the absence of rainwater to harvest by using the heat caused by solar radiation. This water can be remineralized for drinking water. The specific advantage of the product is it's ability to take brackish and saline water and create safe drinking water (this is why Rajasthan is such a good fit for the WP.) [http://www.waterpyramid.nl/]

To fund this technology, the WP team has organized community members to sell value-added products (juice, ice cream, cold water, tea, etc.) to increase revenue and pay for both maintenance and operation costs as well as any small loans that were used for the initial investment. Distilled water is also a potential output that can be sold at a high cost and increase revenues.

Our job, while in Rajasthan, is to investigate current market prices and develop the best business plan for scaling-up in Rajasthan. We're working with a local NGO, Jal Bhagirathi Foundation, in Jodhpur to locate the most appropriate villages where the first WPs will be built. [http://www.jalbhagirathi.org/]

So that's the short version of the story for those who haven't heard me yap on and on about the project. I'm pretty excited...especially since we stop over in Amsterdam to meet our client first and then proceed to India on January 10th.

Jodhpur, India
Jodhpur is known as the blue city.

Itinerary
We have a busy schedule ahead of us:
Wednesday, January 10th- arrive in Delhi in the evening
Thursday, January 11th- travel to Jodhpur via night train from Delhi
Friday, January 12th- field visit with Maharaja Gaj Singhji of Jodhpur (NGO trustee) and a BBC correspondent who is doing a story on the Maharaja
Saturday, January 13th- Birthday Tea Party for Maharaja Gaj Singhji @ Umaid Bhawan Palace followed by music concert
Sunday, January 14th- Annual Stakeholders meeting with local community leaders, government officials, and advisory board followed by dinner with the advisory committee at the Mehrangarh Fort.

Umaid Bhawan Palace is pictured in the front of Mehrangarh Fort.
We'll be visiting villages, conducting our market survey and bank shopping for the two weeks after that- a trip to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, is also a possibility at some point.

Accommodations
We will be staying at Bal Samand Palace, which is pictured below. So this is not my typical type of travel- it's good to be traveling with business students. Not only is there a pool, but both hot and cold water...very exciting! [http://www.nivalink.com/balsamand/index.html]

I'm looking forward to a good trip. It's a great project, networking opportunity, and chance to travel. My last week we'll be traveling around Rajasthan, hopefully getting the chance to go camel riding in the desert, visit the floating palace at Udaipur and I will certainly not be missing this. . .

I depart Saturday, January 6th for Amsterdam, traveling to Delhi on January 10th. So tune in periodically. . .I'll have my laptop and pretty good internet access so I'll try and update every few days.