The Andhra Pradesh government has enlisted the support of Tata Projects Limited to introduce cheap technologies to provide safe and pure drinking water to people living in flouride-affected areas across thousands of villages in the state.
K P Singh, managing director, Tata Projects Limited, demonstrated an economically viable machinery to solve the problem of high fluoride content in ground water sources, in presence of chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.
Reddy said that the water purification machines could be operated by the women-led self help groups (SHG) on loan or subsidy basis in fluoride-affected villages. He said that the SHGs could sell purified water at Re 1 per 20 litre pack, which in turn would also provide sustainable income to them in the villages.
The chief minister disclosed that the state government had given top priority for providing safe drinking water in fluoride-affected districts and made additional allocations in the budget for the purpose.
An amount of Rs 350 crore has been allocated to Nalagonda district alone to provide safe drinking water in the fluoride-affected areas.
Singh said that similar water purification machines with capacities of 100 litres, 200 litres and 1000 litres were already installed in six villages of Warangal and Nalagonda on a experimental basis, according to a government press release.Business Standard
