People in the pilgrim town of Varanasi will soon enjoy the facility of having the cheapest drinking water of the world as dirty water from Ganga would be purified and distributed as low as 50 paise per litre. The plant would be set up at Assighat of Varanasi by Sulabh International. Bindeshwar Pathak — Sulabh founder — told The Pioneer on Thursday that the water would cost just 50 paise per litre.
“We will ask the people to come with their own jerrycans or canisters to get the purified water. For 20 litre water, only Rs10 will be charged,” claimed Pathak. He said this technology can also be used in areas having ponds. “There are many areas in eastern UP where contamination of ground water is very high. The reports suggest that water in Ballia is laced with arsenic. In those areas this cheap water will be a boon,” he said.
Under this new technology, the proposed plant will produce around 8,000 litre of pure drinking water daily at the Assighat in Varanasi. The plant would be established within next three months time. Sulabh has already established such plants in three places in West Bengal and trial have been completed. Now we are going to replicate our new invention at Assiaghat, Pathak said.
Sulabh will soon seek permission from authorities concerned for setting up of the plant. We are going to approach the government agencies and district administration to give us permission to set up plant around Assighat, he said. “It’s not a commercial venture at all,” Pathak added. and I am an inventor of new water treatment technology so I wish to dedicate one to the people of Varanasi, Dr. Pathak said. The project will cost Rs. 20 lakh and Sulabh will setup with its own fund.
The innovative model is the result of a joint venture of Sulabh International and a French organisation ‘1001 Fontaines’, which though various stages of purification provide safe drinking water from any water bodies like rivers or ponds.
“This is the first time in the world that we have succeeded in producing pure drinking water at a very nominal cost by this new technology and commoners may get direct benefit,” says Dr. Pathak.
Sulabh media in-charge Madan Jha said that Sulabh along with the French organization had launched a pilot project in three West Bengal districts of North 24-Parganas, Murshidabad and Nadia a few months ago and the trial run proved successful.