Rajasthan inks deal for clean drinking water in Barmer

Rajasthan on Thursday signed an agreement with Cairn Enterprise Centre Society, supported by oil and gas exploration company Cairn India, to provide clean drinking water in Barmer district.

As per the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the public health engineering department and Cairn Enterprise Centre Society, water plants will be established and maintained to provide clean drinking water to more than 800 villages in Barmer, a part of the Thar desert where drinking water is a precious commodity.

"The initiative will involve setting up of 333 small scale reverse osmosis (RO) plants (1,000-3,000 litres per hour capacity) over the next three years to provide safe drinking water to a large number of people (estimated in excess of one million) living in 800 villages," Cairn India spokesperson Arun Arora said in a statement.

Cairn India's major oil fields are in Barmer district, where the company produces over 175,000 barrels of oil per day.

Cairn India had initiated the "Jeevan Amrit" pilot project in 2014 in collaboration with the state government to ensure safe drinking water to people in Barmer and Jalore through the establishment of reverse osmosis facilities.