Kolkata-born entrepreneur Navkaran Singh Bagga is attempting to address one of the most persistent challenges in water access by producing drinking water directly from atmospheric moisture. As Founder and CEO of Akvo Atmospheric Water Systems, Bagga has spent the past eight years developing atmospheric water generators designed for locations where conventional sources such as pipelines, tankers and borewells are difficult or unreliable. Akvo’s machines are now operational at more than 2,000 sites across 15 countries and together produce around 300,000 litres of drinking water every day.
The company says its installed base has produced more than 100 million litres so far, without extracting water from the ground. Its systems have been deployed in remote villages, island communities, airports and Border Security Force posts, including locations where transporting water is difficult. More recently, two solar-powered Akvo machines were commissioned in September 2026 for a remote island community in the Philippines under government evaluation.
Bagga, however, says the technology should not be presented as a universal solution to water scarcity. He maintains that atmospheric water generation works best in suitable climatic conditions and should be evaluated based on humidity, temperature, electricity consumption and independent drinking-water testing. “It is not the answer to India’s water crisis,” he says. “It is the answer for the places the pipe doesn’t reach.”
From Air To Drinking Water
Akvo’s technology is based on a natural process that occurs whenever moist air cools below its dew point. The machines draw atmospheric air into the system, filter out dust and pollutants and pass it across a chilled coil, causing water vapour to condense into droplets. The collected water then goes through several treatment stages, including sediment and carbon filtration, ultrafiltration and ultraviolet disinfection, before minerals are added. According to Bagga, condensed water begins with very low levels of dissolved salts, meaning reverse osmosis is not required and there is no reject water from an RO process.
The company says every installation is tested against IS 10500, India’s drinking-water standard, through NABL-accredited laboratories. The approach is already being used in locations where conventional infrastructure presents logistical challenges. In Hardua Mangarh village in Madhya Pradesh, residents had reportedly been walking around four kilometres every day for water, with an old well serving as the community’s primary source for generations.
An Akvo unit capable of producing up to 1,000 litres a day was installed there. In Lakshadweep, the company supplies drinking water for the Airports Authority of India, while its units have also served Border Security Force posts where water would otherwise have to be transported. In Gujarat, Akvo installed a unit for Gandhidham Municipal Corporation in collaboration with CEPT Research and Development Foundation’s Center for Water and Sanitation.
The installation includes drinking-water testing and two years of maintenance. These deployments indicate the different stakeholders involved in decentralised water solutions, including communities, local government bodies, research organisations and institutions operating in geographically difficult locations. However, the supplied material does not include direct statements from government officials or representatives of these institutions, so their views have not been attributed beyond the documented nature of their involvement.
A Failure That Changed The Business
Bagga’s journey into water technology began unexpectedly. A second-generation entrepreneur from Kolkata, he had studied at the University of Kent at Canterbury and previously worked across finance, hospitality, steel and strategic investing. He exited the investment business in 2016. Later that year, while watching The Big Short, he became interested in the idea of water as a critical resource. The thought eventually led him to explore technologies capable of producing water from atmospheric moisture.
He began working on the technology in 2017 and incorporated Akvo in 2018. Bagga openly acknowledges that he entered the sector without an engineering background. “I’m not an engineer. I’m a finance student who ended up running a company that makes water out of air,” he says. One of the most important turning points came when an Akvo machine installed in an extremely hot and arid region failed to produce the expected amount of water. Bagga says the experience forced the company to reconsider how atmospheric water generators were specified and marketed. “Physics doesn’t negotiate with you,” he says.
Atmospheric water output depends heavily on temperature and humidity. The company now bases installation decisions on a full year of local climate data and deliberately oversizes machines in drier areas. Bagga says customers are also told the environmental conditions behind the output figures quoted for a machine. A unit rated at 30°C and 80 per cent humidity, for example, will produce significantly less water when conditions become cooler or drier. Akvo says that at 25°C and 60 per cent humidity, output can fall to around 57 per cent of the rated figure. Energy use is another limitation.
In warm and humid Indian conditions, the machines currently consume around 0.4 kWh of electricity per litre, although the company is working to reduce this through improvements to coils, fans and control software. Below roughly 30 per cent humidity, condensation-based atmospheric water generation becomes impractical. Akvo therefore positions the technology as a decentralised option for specific environments rather than a replacement for municipal water systems or agricultural irrigation. Its Nimbus OS monitoring platform tracks machine performance, surrounding temperature and humidity, filter requirements and production, while allowing faults to be identified remotely.
The company’s next focus is on solar-powered, off-grid systems for disaster relief, island communities and municipal water programmes. The latest development includes two Akvo units powered through solar panels, batteries and a backup generator that were commissioned in September 2026 for a remote island community in the Philippines as part of government evaluation.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
Access to safe drinking water should not depend solely on whether a community happens to be connected to a pipeline or has a reliable groundwater source. Akvo’s work highlights how technology can create another option for communities facing difficult geography, disrupted infrastructure or the high cost of transporting water.
At the same time, the experience shared by Navkaran Singh Bagga offers an important reminder that responsible innovation requires honesty about limitations. Atmospheric water generation cannot work equally well everywhere, consumes electricity and depends on local climatic conditions. Presenting those limitations clearly is therefore as important as highlighting the technology’s potential.
The involvement of communities, public institutions, research organisations and other stakeholders also shows why solutions to water scarcity need cooperation rather than a single technological answer. As climate pressures and infrastructure gaps continue to affect access to drinking water, decentralised technologies could have a role where conventional systems cannot easily reach, provided their performance, safety, energy use and long-term maintenance are properly assessed.
What do you think: can technologies such as atmospheric water generation become a meaningful part of the effort to ensure that communities beyond the pipeline have safe and reliable drinking water?
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