No donors for NTR Sujala Sravanti programme

Visakhapatnam: Though rural water supply officials had identified around 230 villages in Visakhapatnam district for supplying purified drinking water to the villages under NTR Sujala Sravanti programme, only 14 units have been set up so far.

It may be recalled that the state government had announced that purified water would be supplied from October 2 in 5,000 villages in Andhra Pradesh. As part of the programme, officials identified 232 villages in the entire district where protected water is to be supplied and the units would be established with the support of organisations under Corporate Social Responsibility.

RWS officials identified industrial organisations which were willing to provide support for arranging the units under NTRSS programme and conducted a meeting with them recently.

As per initial plans, they have to supply 20 litres of filtered drinking water for Rs 2 in all these selected villages but still the department has to receive financial assistance from the donor organisations.

“We have approached donor organisations for setting up the units at the identified villages in the district. The cost of the unit depends on the technology reverse osmosis, ultraviolet filtration or defluoridation of water and they would be taken up in a phased manner. Still, we have to receive funds from the organisations which assured to support the programme,” said S. Kantanath, RWS superintending engineer.

The villages identified for implementation of the scheme are having basic infrastructure like water, power and sheds for accommodating machinery.

But, the donor organisations have to come forward to assist the programme. Reverse osmosis technology is available between Rs 1.50 lakh and Rs 3 lakh.

Recently, the state government had issued directions asking the officials to set up at least one per each constituency and the number would gradually increase in a phased manner depending on availability of funds, according to officials.