CHENNAI: Here is some good news. Residents of Maraimalai Nagar municipality in Kancheepuram district get reverse osmosis (RO) drinking water when they turn the tap. Thanks to the local body which has provided RO water facility to all 18,000 households free of cost. A tail end suburb, which has least access to water from Palar river, Maraimalai Nagar residents can now bank on 139 RO plants set up by the municipal body.
Structured at Rs 10 crore, the project covers all the 21 wards of the municipality, which has close to 18,000 households. Chairman of the municipality, M.G.K Gopikannan said, “Every household is given a card and an operator is deployed at every plant. This would avoid commercial exploitation of water.” “Only six wards have access to Palar water. Though we were supplied with water from municipal tankers, it was not enough. We are elated over the facility as summer would no longer scare us,” said C. Sekaran, a resident.
The civic body is also planning to expedite the setting up of 40 more plants at an estimate of Rs 3 crore. Plants were set up in marginalised areas too, as an Irula settlement at Maraimalai Nagar, which barely has 20 households, has an exclusive plant. Reject water from the plants which constitutes over 40 per cent of the original volume is reused for gardening and cleaning purposes, the chairman said.
Quality check of the water is conducted every week. Possibility of water bound diseases is quite less, he hoped. “We have fulfilled the electoral promise made by Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, according to which every individual from a household should receive 20 litres of water each day,” said Gopikannan.
