Every summer I visited my grandmother's house. Her main water source was a kund — a traditional underground rainwater tank. I had grown up drinking RO-filtered water, so I avoided it.

Looking back, what stays with me is this: I had the privilege of choosing not to drink it. My cousins didn't have that choice.

That is where Jal Setu began, with one question — could we make clean drinking water affordable using materials rural communities already have? Not an expensive machine that needs power, spare parts, and a technician who never comes. Something a family could use on day one, in a form they already trusted.