Arghyam is a public charitable foundation setup with a personal endowment from Rohini Nilekani and working in the water sector since 2005.  ‘Arghyam’ is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘Offering’.

Our mission is “Enough water, safe water ….. always and for all”.

Arghyam seeks to support strategic and sustainable efforts in the water sector that address basic water needs for all citizens. Arghyam’s Strategy is integrated around five focal areas:

Arghyam seeks to support strategic and sustainable Projects in the water sector that enhance equity in access to water for all citizens. We emphasize sustainability - environmental, financial, social and technical - as the key desirable outcomes in all projects we support.

We are working with several partners to manage the India Water Portal (www.indiawaterportal.org), which is an open, inclusive, web-based platform for sharing knowledge, information and data on the water sector in India. The objective of the Portal is to create a collaborative space for those interested in water and related issues like sanitation, water quality, wastewater management etc.

We have recently begun our work in the Urban Water Sector. The thrust of our urban initiative is to develop a Practical Framework for Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM). IUWM approach takes into consideration the political, environmental, social, economic and technical components of water management.

We partner with the government and other institutions to scale up the reach of a project, while ensuring that the last-mile issues are addressed. Such partnerships, we believe, act as force multipliers. They provide learning opportunities and help in validating solution approaches.

The above efforts feed into and draw from our Research and Advocacy initiatives. Our advocacy initiative involves taking lessons from the field to the highest levels of policy formulation and decision - making. We support research into specific new technologies or approaches in the water and sanitation sector that have the potential to create significant impact.