Bhubaneswar, July 13: With a view to provide safe and portable drinking water to people by the introduction of water ATMs on an invest Rs 5 Core, on Tuesday, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Piramal Sarvajal, a private firm in Bhubaneswar. After Delhi, the smart city Bhubaneswar is the second in line to have water ATMs and it’s the first to introduce this kind of system. All the technical assistance would be provided by the private company to BMC for installation and maintenance for five years.
Works on solar power, the water ATMs facilities would be provided to all those places having an absence of drinking water accessibility, sources said. For this, four water treatment units will be set up by the private firm and 10 water ATMs by each unit. For transportation of the purified water, vehicles would be deployed. For the availing this facility, people would be required to buy smart cards to fetch water from ATMs by swiping the card. For this purpose, the amount has been fixed to 30 paisa per litter, BMC official informed. After swiping the card, one can select water quantity as per their need, official further added.
By spending Rs 5 Core for this project, it would be a help in reduction of water borne diseases in water scare areas. Hence, priority would be given to those areas having no direct access to safe water or piped water. To install more water ATMs the slum pockets has been selected, informed Anant Narayan Jena, Mayor of BMC. The capacity of the ATMs would be 500 liter water to 40,000 liters and according to the demand from particular areas the water would be stored in the ATMs, said Dwaipayan Patnaik, BMC’s City Engineer. The rechargeable smart card would be provided to people free of cost, later they would have to recharge it before purchasing the water, he further added.
