20 Litres of purified drinking water at Rs.7
Posted on: 05/Jun/2018 2:33:44 PM
As there is very huge demand for purified drinking water that are sold by private agencies, on Monday (Yesterday), a government announcement was made stating that there are plans for supplying RO or UV purified water through automatic vending centres. These will be present at each and every wards across the state in urban local bodies. In another 3 months, out of 4,352 wards present in the urban local bodies encompassing 11 corporations and 124 town panchayats, this public-private partnership will come to effect.
Pilot projects were held at Maraimalai Nagar and Chengalpet municipalities. Here, plants of 8000 litres capacity have been in use for meeting the water needs of people. These were sold for Rs 7 for 20 litres.
There is very good supply and these vending machines are usually kept open for about 8 hours.
Smart cards are given to residents. The card can be recharged for rate ranging from Rs 50 to Rs 250. So, with this, purified water gets available for very nominal rate. In phased manners, the government has planned to set up these centres, says S P Velumani, the minister of water supply and municipal administration.
G Prakash, the Municipal administration commissioner says the system is gaining popularity among the public. There is enough space being offered by the local bodies. Capital expenses are done by NGOs apart from their part in operation and maintenance. Very soon, private players will embark on into this journey, he adds. The scope will further be widened with the entry of industrial bodies including FICCI and CII. With this, in another 3 years, almost all the wards will be encompassed. Wards from local bodies are already being identified by the CMA.
Nearly 500 households are availing this drinking water facility out of the pilot project in Maraimalai Nagar, as per Mariselvi Prabhu’s statement – municipal commissioner. The supply can be stated as a well, as we have it kept open for 8 long hours. This is absolutely not for commercial purpose. These are registered with Aadhar and family cards.
Once the CSR initiatives are made into precious assets, and the public get benefitted out of this purified water supply, the corporates will find it very satisfying, says Prakash. Very soon, the local bodies will show huge interest. Every day, about 1,873.29 million litres water is being provided to the local bodies. The per capita supply remained 113LPCD in 2017.
