For over 20 years, Palladium has committed 1.5% of its profit before tax to its global giving platform, Let's Make it Possible. Through this platform, and in partnership with the Kyeema Foundation, Palladium funds humanitarian relief efforts, supports community projects nominated by employees, and runs an annual Challenge Fund focused on tackling critical global challenges.

We are pleased to announce the winner of Palladium's 2026 Challenge Fund, Water for Prosperity: Safeguarding and Maximising the Value of Water Resources.

This year's winning project comes from Drinkwell (WIST, Inc.), a water enterprise that has spent more than a decade tackling some of the world's most complex drinking water challenges. Its project proposal, Fluoride-Safe Water for Rajasthan, addresses a crisis affecting millions of people across India's driest state.

Across Rajasthan, groundwater supplies around 90% of rural drinking water, yet more than 60% of water sources exceed national fluoride standards. In some areas, fluoride concentrations reach more than ten times the level considered safe for human consumption. Long-term exposure can cause dental fluorosis in children and debilitating skeletal fluorosis in adults, creating lasting impacts on health, livelihoods and quality of life.

At the same time, Rajasthan faces extreme water stress. Communities need solutions that not only make water safe to drink but also use scarce water resources more efficiently. Drinkwell's project tackles both challenges together.

"Water sits at the centre of health, economic opportunity, climate resilience and human dignity," says Sinéad Magill, CEO of Palladium and Chair of the Kyeema Foundation. "What makes Drinkwell's proposal stand out is that it recognises safe water and water stewardship are inseparable. It offers a practical pathway to protect communities while using scarce water resources more efficiently."

Working with partners including the Centre for microFinance (CMF), Tata Trusts, INREM Foundation and the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Drinkwell will deploy and compare three different approaches to fluoride-safe water delivery across affected communities in Rajasthan.

The project will install two community-scale Water ATM systems and distribute 1,000 household filters to families living in scattered rural hamlets. One system uses Drinkwell's HIX technology, which can recover up to 95 per cent of source water while removing fluoride. The second combines HIX with reverse osmosis to serve communities with higher levels of dissolved solids. Household filters will ensure remote families that cannot be reached by community kiosks also gain access to safe drinking water.

Together, the project is expected to provide fluoride-safe water to between 9,000 and 15,000 people while reducing groundwater abstraction by 30 to 50 per cent compared with conventional reverse osmosis systems. Independent monitoring and evaluation conducted by the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore will compare the effectiveness, costs and scalability of all three approaches.

A key reason the proposal impressed judges was its emphasis on evidence and scale. Rather than testing a single intervention, Drinkwell will generate comparative data designed to inform future investment decisions by government agencies, development organisations and other funders. The project specifically aims to provide practical evidence that can support wider adoption of effective fluoride mitigation solutions across Rajasthan and beyond. Just as importantly, the comparison between community kiosks and household filters will help policymakers understand which solutions work best in different settings, from larger villages to remote hamlets where conventional infrastructure is often not viable.

"One of the ambitions behind the Water for Prosperity Challenge Fund is to support innovations that can reshape how water is valued and managed," says Magill. "Drinkwell is not simply delivering infrastructure. It is creating the evidence, partnerships and operating models needed for long-term impact. It offers a tested framework for reducing fluoride exposure while conserving scarce groundwater resources."

The proposal also reflects the Challenge Fund's commitment to inclusive development. Women and girls, who often bear responsibility for collecting water and caring for family members affected by fluorosis, have been placed at the centre of the project's design. Women's self-help groups will play key roles in community engagement, service delivery and maintenance, while accessible household water treatment options will help reach vulnerable populations, including people living with disabilities caused by skeletal fluorosis.

Drinkwell's project exemplifies the vision behind the 2026 Challenge Fund: demonstrating that protecting water resources and improving lives are not competing goals, but mutually reinforcing ones. By addressing water quality, water efficiency, community ownership and long-term sustainability together, the initiative offers a practical blueprint for tackling one of Rajasthan's most persistent public health challenges while safeguarding water supplies in one of the world's most water-stressed regions.

As water challenges continue to grow around the world, Fluoride-Safe Water for Rajasthan shows how targeted innovation, local partnerships and rigorous evidence can help communities confront both water scarcity and water contamination at the same time. The lessons generated through this project could inform future approaches to fluoride-safe water not only across Rajasthan, but in other regions facing similar pressures.