WaterHealth International Friday announced launching of the 'blue revolution', aimed at brining potable water to roughly two billion people worldwide with little or no access to safe drinking water.

WorldHealth International, which held its board meeting here, said it would focus on India and South Asia, West Africa, the Philippines and Latin America.

Tralance Addy, president and CEO of WaterHealth International (WHI), told a news conference that the organisation would work with corporations, government and non-governmental organisations to solve global health crisis created by water-borne diseases.

WHI, which has committed to lead the effort through its technology and innovative models, presently has 500 installations of its water purification and disinfection systems in developing countries around the world.

WaterHealth India has developed 50 such systems in villages in coastal Andhra Pradesh while work is on to set up 70 other systems through Nandi Foundation, a non-governmental organisation.

'We hope to have the same impact on India as the green revolution did on agriculture. We believe that our efforts in solving clean water crisis will contribute significantly to meeting of the UN Millennium Development goals by 2015,' said Tralance.

Sudesh Menon, CEO, WaterHealth India said they were looking to expand their activities to other states like Orissa, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat.

'About 650 million people and 600,000 villages in India have no access to potable water. The task is mammoth but once we marshal the partners the numbers will become irrelevant,' said Menon.

The investors and shareholders in WaterHealth include Acumen Fund, Dow Venture Capital, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Johnson & Johnson Corporation, Plebys International, LLC, Anji Reddy of Dr Reddy's Labs and SAIL Venture Partners.

Last year ICICI Bank had committed $865,000 to WaterHealth India, in a commercial loan facility.

WHI scientific affairs, vice president Ashok Gadgil, who developed patented, award-winning technology UV Waterworks, said it employed a unique ultraviolet system configuration.

'UV Waterworks delivers a high dose of ultraviolet light that inactivates micro-organisms through disruption of their DNA processes. When organisms try to replicate, they die,' said Gadgil, a physicist and environmental scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories.

He said the cost of the water treated with WHI systems was as low as Re.1 for 12 litres. The cost of the plant depends on the size of population to be covered and the quality of water to be treated.

'The per capita cost for a plant will be $10 to $20,' he said.