The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Water woes of 400 villages may end

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Sunday, May 25, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Water woes of 400 villages may end

Staff Reporter

Administration to submit proposal to Centre

400 RO and UV treatment plants to be set up
Each RO & UV plant costs between Rs 20- 30 lakhs

Kakinada: The district administration will be soon submitting a proposal to the Central Government for setting up about 400 reverse osmosis (RO) and UV treatment plants in as many villages to provide safe drinking water.

The idea is to initially cater to villages which are not covered by any protected water scheme and where sea water intrusion is a persistent problem. The first phase of the project is estimated at Rs 100 crores. No other district has such a large – scale project mooted in the government sector.

District Collector Gopalakrishna Dwivedi is hopeful that the Central Government would clear the proposal as it pertained to fulfilling one of people’s basic needs. He said 90 per cent of the project cost was sought to be borne by the Central Government and the balance would be local contribution.

Helping hand

Besides, Reliance Industries which is into commercial exploitation of natural gas in the K-G basin, was asked to extend a helping hand so that the people’s problem were solved once and for all.

Each RO & UV plant costs between Rs 20 lakhs and Rs 30 lakhs depending on its capacity which varies between 500 and 2,000 litres per hour. The Rural Water Supply Department will execute the project and it will also be responsible for its maintenance.

This project will be helpful to several villages in 11 coastal mandals where sea water intrusion is a recurring problem. Such villages will be given priority in the first phase. More habitations will be covered in the later phase.

The Collector said small RO plants were successfully working in a few villages under the aegis of NGOs like Naandi and he thought of replicating the experiment on a big scale under the purview of government departments concerned to derive themaximum benefit.

Zilla parishad chairman Ch Venugopala Krishna and some other people’s representatives expressed willingness to extend financial assistance. The project is therefore bound to be a success and become a model for other districts as it continues to evoke positive response from different quarters, the Collector added.

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