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Good response to tender for desalination plant

Staff Reporter

Project to address water shortage in Fort Kochi

KOCHI: Tenders invited by the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) to install a 2-lakh-litre capacity desalination plant at Fort Kochi has evoked good response. The plant is expected to solve the drinking water shortage in Fort Kochi and Mattanchery regions to a great extent.

The Authority has already identified a plot for installing the plant.

The District Collector has been asked to finalise the price of the land at Manassery, in the southern tip of Mattanchery constituency, and acquire the land.

The proposed plant will employ the method of drawing water from a well dug near the sea and treating it using Reverse Osmosis method.

Those who secure the bid should install, own and operate the plant for one year. They can collect fee of four paise a litre of purified water, said GCDA sources.

"If this project becomes successful, more projects can be taken up to solve the crisis along the coastal belt.

The GCDA will spend Rs.2.5 crore for this project, but next time we will do it on a profit basis," said Antony Isaac, Chairman, GCDA.

The Chellanam panchayat, where the GCDA had done a survey for installing a desalination plant, is now planning to revive the proposal.

The GCDA project had to be shelved after the Department of Fisheries built and handed over a plant to the panchayat.

"The plant, which has capacity of treating 20,000 litres daily, is not enough for us. The Kerala Water Authority has also not increased the supply of water, forcing us to look for more options," said K.D. Prasad, Chellanam panchayat president.

The panchayat now spends Rs.750 daily to operate the plant and earns only half that by selling water at the rate of 10 paise a litre.

The panchayat is now planning to set up a supply network of its own for delivering the treated water.

"Even though, the panchayat needs around 7.5 million litres per day (MLD), the Water Authority is now providing around 3.5 MLD only.

Hence we are planning to meet the GCDA chairman and revive the proposal," said Mr. Prasad.

The Authority had done the field survey in Chellanam as part of the post-tsunami relief works taken up by the district administration.

As many as 145 wells and ponds had been contaminated by surging seawater during the tsunami onslaught in December 2004.

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