Madurai:

With villages that used indigenous methods of water harvesting and storing being forced to look for alternative means, Kottanathampatti in Madurai is jubilant as it has been given a desalination plant to address its drinking water needs.

Kottanathampatti, identified a model village in the district, boasts of self-sustenance but for potable water. Relief came on Saturday when a desalination plant put up at a cost of Rs 6 lakh started functioning. The plant has an automatic dispenser that supplies 18 litres of water for Rs 2. The villagers need to drop in two one-rupee coins and collect the water from the plant, that has a capacity of 5,000 litres.

“The villagers can also have a pre-paid account, wherein they should pay Rs 100 and get their fingerprints registered. These people need not pay every time they want water. Instead, they should identify themselves in the fingerprint reader and collect water. The idea of the project is to ensure potable water for all villagers,” said collector Anshul Mishra who inaugurated the plant.

This is not the first time desalination plants have come to the rescue of drinking water-starved villages in Tamil Nadu. The villagers of K Ramanathapuram in Dindigul district have established a community-funded desalination plant to turn the highly saline ground water to consumable standards.

Mishra said the district administration was gearing up to implement similar projects in other villages too.

The district administration has selected one village in all unions and was addressing the needs of the people there, he added.

Kotanathampatti was chosen as a model village by former collector U Sagayam to show the way of self sustenance and development with assistance from the local body and the district administration. The village has also begun a green cover drive aimed at improving the groundwater table. To begin with, each of the 3,000 households have planned to raise one tree.

Another key aspect of “project self sustenance” is to make the village 100 per cent literate by ensuring that there are no dropouts. K Kandappan, panchayat president, notes that though the village was endowed with adequate resources, potable water was the only major problem.

With the desalination plant, that problem has been addressed and now the village is also planning to go in for solar power production.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Madurai / by M Mayilvaganan, TNN / September 09th, 2012