China · 2021-2025
500 water stations in Xinzheng
A city-level network of community water stations, dispensing roughly 500,000 barrels a year through prepaid cards and IoT monitoring.
What the site needed
Mains water in the district is hard, and boiling it costs more than buying it. A station has to do three things at once: make water that passes a lab test, sell it without an argument about change, and tell the operator when a membrane is failing.
How it was run
- Pretreatment sized to the local hardness, with a softener where the water demands it.
- A 1,000 L food-grade tank so the station can serve a morning queue without cycling the pump.
- Prepaid card and QR payment; no cash box, no attendant dispute.
- Telemetry on litres sold, recovery rate and filter differential pressure.
- A 30-day service route, grouped by station density.
What it proves
A water station is a retail site with a filter attached. The membrane is the least interesting part of the business. Volume, uptime and collection are what decide whether the station pays back in seven months or three years. That is why the playbook starts with the queue, not the specification.
The site, frame by frame
One station, three volumes
| Capex per station | USD 5,500-8,000 |
| Price per 20 L barrel | USD 0.25 |
| 1,500 L/day | Net USD 12.75/day, payback about 17 months |
| 3,000 L/day | Net USD 29.50/day, payback about 7 months |
| 5,000 L/day | Net USD 51.50/day, payback about 4 months |
| Opex includes | Power, filters, attendant, site rent |
Illustrative at USD 0.25 per barrel. The volume assumption is the one that must be tested on site before the station is ordered.
What to copy, what to avoid
- Count the queue before you count the litres.
- Size pretreatment to the local water, not to the catalogue.
- Remove cash from the transaction; it removes the argument.
- Group service visits by density, or the route eats the margin.
Send the site. We will send the file.
Road width, water source, destination and the document your funder or customs office expects. You will get a configuration, a price and the evidence list in one reply.