About Spring Health
Building village-owned water systems for rural India. We are a for-profit social enterprise delivering safe, affordable drinking water to rural communities through decentralized, entrepreneur-led models. Founded in 2011, we work where large infrastructure and commercial water systems fail, ensuring clean water reaches households daily, with dignity and reliability.
OUR STORY
Spring Health was founded in 2011 to address a persistent gap in rural India: the absence of safe, reliable, and affordable drinking water, even in villages where water sources exist.
THE REALITY
Across rural and eastern India, families continue to rely on unsafe groundwater, defunct public systems, or long daily walks to fetch water even in villages where water sources exist.In India alone, an estimated 63 million people still lack access to safe drinking water. Large infrastructure projects often move too slowly to address everyday needs, while bottled water remains unaffordable for most rural households.
Untreated piped supply frequently fails to protect public health. These conditions disproportionately affect women, who spend hours fetching water, and reinforce exclusion at shared public water points.
Vision
We envision rural communities where access to essential services creates opportunity, stability, and dignity. By building a scalable, locally driven model, Spring Health aims to generate sustainable livelihoods, strengthen village economies, and reach millions of households across India while advancing environmentally responsible solutions for long-term impact.
Mission
FOUNDER PROFILE
PAUL POLAK (1939–2019)
Spring Health was co-founded by Dr Paul Polak, a global pioneer in social entrepreneurship and market-based solutions to poverty. His belief that every rural person can be an entrepreneur shaped decades of work creating affordable, practical solutions for underserved communities, reaching an estimated 30 million lives worldwide.
His thinking continues to guide Spring Health’s work in clean water and livelihoods building locally driven systems that are affordable, scalable, and grounded in dignity.
MEET THE TEAM
Spring Health is led by a team with experience across design, telecommunications, operations, and large-scale rural distribution.
Kishan Nanavati
Chief Executive Officer
Prior to Spring Health, Kishan worked in the telecommunications sector, managing over 25,000 retail outlets with Uninor in Karnataka. He has held senior leadership roles at Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices, with deep expertise in last-mile operations.
Jacob Mathew
Co-Founder, Director
Jacob is the co-founder of Idiom Design, a firm integrating branding, product design, and business rollout strategy. He has led businesses across manufacturing, retail, and consulting, bringing a systems-led approach to building scalable enterprises.
Operations & Field Team
Spring Health’s field operations are anchored by experienced leaders. They are working closely with village entrepreneurs and delivery teams.
Krupa Sindhu Paltasingh
Director of Operations
Ramesh Sutar
Director of Finance
Spring Health’s field operations are anchored by experienced leaders. They are working closely with village entrepreneurs and delivery teams.
OUR PARTNERSHIPS
Partnerships strengthen Spring Health’s ability to deliver, validate, and sustain impact.
Operational Partnerships
Spring Health works with Aqua for All and collaborates with Unilever’s Shakti initiative, enabling women-led self-help groups to distribute products locally while retaining the majority of sales margins, supporting income resilience.
Research & Validation
The organisation partners with leading academic institutions, including the University of Chicago and Stanford University, to independently assess health and economic outcomes. A randomised controlled trial by University of Chicago economists validated Spring Health’s model as highly cost-effective.
Innovative Financing
Spring Health is one of the first water enterprises globally to receive Gold Standard Certification for Verified Emission Reductions (VERs). By reducing the need to boil water using firewood or coal, the project generates carbon credits sold on the voluntary carbon market to support long-term sustainability.
GEOGRAPHIC REACH
Spring Health currently operates in over 250 villages in rural Odisha, delivering treated drinking water daily through village-level kiosks and doorstep delivery.
Odisha was selected due to stable groundwater quality, lower industrial contamination, and long-standing community engagement. The organisation has since begun expansion into Chhattisgarh, with future growth planned across Central India, including Uttar Pradesh (East) and Madhya Pradesh.
Expansion decisions are guided by groundwater viability, community need, and the ability to build sustainable local enterprises.