160 villages of Raj to get drinking water plants

A total of 160 villages, spread over six of the eight blocks in Barmer district of Rajasthan, will now have reverse osmosis plants to counter the high fluoride and other heavy metal contents in the ground water.
"We have selected these 160 villages for the installation of the RO Plants on the basis of the quality of the water available to them, which has high fluoride and other heavy metal contents," PHED acting Superintendent Engineer B L Jatol said.
So far 36 RO plants, one each in 36 villages have been installed and the rest of all will be installed by the end of this financial year, he said.

The contract for establishing the plants has been given to the private players, who will be installing these plants and will have responsibility to run them smoothly for seven years, after which, these plants will be handed over to the PHED, he said.
Under the project, the villagers will be made available the sweet and pure water at the cost of Rs 2 for per 20 litres, he said.
"Out of eight blocks in Barmer district, these plants are being installed in the villages spread over six blocks which are not yet connected to Barmer Lift Canal project, which include Barmer, Sheo, Dhorimanna, Sindhari, Balotra and Chohtan," said Ashok Singh Rajpurohit, IEC Consultant (CCDU).

Rest two blocks Siwana and Bayatu are linked with the Barmer Link Canal project and have adequate potable water, he said.

Till now these villages have been getting ground water through GLRs (Ground Level Water Reservoirs), which is brackish and has high metal content, Rajpurohit said.
Parallel to this, PHED has also embarked upon installation of the RO plants with ATM card like concept in association with a crude oil exploration company starting with two villages Kawas and Bheemada.
In the machine, the water drawee will insert the card and value in the machine and will get the water accordingly any time at the cost of Rs 5 for per 20 litres, the officer said.