Barmer has got yet another feather in its cap, as the countryÂ’s largest solar-based community drinking water project starts functioning at village Seniwala.
Cairn India, under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) of Rajasthan, is establishing clean water plants across Barmer district.
A total of 331 clean water plants would be established under this MoU. Fontus Water is one of the two implementing partners for the project. These plants have varying capacities from 1,000 to 3,000 litres per hour, and will be installed over the next three years to provide safe drinking water to a large number of people (estimated in excess of 1 million), living in 800 villages. This will be IndiaÂ’s largest CSR water initiative.
The first plant based on this pioneering initiative and IndiaÂ’s largest solar-operated community based RO plant, has been installed at Sewniwala in Baytu tehsil.
The solar plant will generate a power of 5 kW and store the same in batteries, which can be used for 8-10 hours of plant operations. The water from this plant will be sold at 25 paise per litre to the local community.
Barmer receives abundant sunlight throughout the year. To maximise use of this renewable source of energy, Cairn India and Fontus Water will be operating some of the water purification plants using solar energy.
This installation has put Sewniwala on the world map, and will help in tackling various health issues of the local people by providing purified drinking water at their doorsteps.
This is an innovative example of sustainable solutions in community development, where environmentally-friendly green solutions are being used to serve the poorest population with safe drinking water.
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