The Hindu : Karnataka News : Water treatment project goes down the drain

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Friday, Jan 04, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Water treatment project goes down the drain

Staff Correspondent

A scheme on supplying fluoride-free drinking water runs into trouble

125 plants were to be installed in 12 districts in the State
While the company claims it was not paid for the work, the official says funds were released

Chitradurga: Realising the health hazards of fluoride water which was posing serious health problems in around 12 districts of the State, the Government about three years ago proposed a plan of establishing plants to remove fluoride from water.

In all the 12 districts which were identified with having a heavy contamination of fluoride, a plan was mooted to set up around 125 plants.

But because of improper implementation and non-maintenance of the plants, the ambitious project failed to take off.

Under the norms of the proposal, the plants would be set up in those places which had concentration of fluoride above 1.50 parts per million (ppm), and where the water was largely supplied through tube wells.

As per the guidelines, a tender would be invited and the implementing agency was to complete the work within 18 months.

After the setting up of plant, the respective gram panchayats were asked to take care of the maintenance.

While the cost of each plant was around Rs. 2.3 lakh, the Government asked the gram panchayats of the district to bear 10 per cent of the amount for installing the plants.

The official of the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, which was overseeing the project, said that two kinds of technologies were used in the plants — reverse osmosis technology and adsorption technology.

These were considered effective and affordable. While 100 plants were to be set up using reverse osmosis, the remaining 25 were to have adsorption technology. An official of a Bangalore-based company, which bagged the tender to set up 100 plants, said the Government did not identify the places where the plants were to be installed.

The bills of the company were not settled after installation. “We incurred heavy loss as our bills were not cleared by the Government,” he said.

The department official concerned said all the proposed plants had been set up in 12 districts. As per the statistics, 25 plants had been set up in Tumkur, 18 in Kolar, two in Hassan, five in Davangere, 16 in Belgaum, 21 in Bijapur, nine in Gulbarga while four were in Gadag.

Another 25 plants which were based on adsorption technology had been set up in four districts. The break-up was five plants in Kolar, 16 in Gadag, one in Chitradurga and three in Haveri.

The official said 59 of the 100 plants were functioning while the rest were defunct. Of the 25 plants, four were not functioning.

On reviving the project, the official said the department was working out new plans by inviting tender for the repair and maintenance of the defunct plants.

“After the repair, if the gram panchayats do not maintain it, then the cost of maintenance would be cut from their annul budget and the same would be given to the private company on annual maintenance contract (AMC),” he said.

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