Project to Provide Potable Water
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is supporting a project to provide potable water to over 140 villages in the state.
According to NABARD sources, the project has been started in Bijapur, Davangere, Gadag, Tumkur, Chitradurga, Mandya and Raichur districts, where water sources were heavily contaminated with fluoride and alkaline.
State NABARD Chief General Manager G R Chintala told Express that the project has been executed under the private-public-participation (PPP) model through the Hyderabad-based firm SMAAT India Private Limited and the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department (RDPR).
Informing that NABARD is extending both technical and financial support to the project, Chintala said over five lakh people have benefited from the project. NABARD has released about `6.3 crore to implement it. He said the fluoride content in drinking water sources was about five times more than the permissible limit.
On the dynamics of the project, he said SMAAT established a water processing unit in selected villages and sells water at `20 paise per litre. The price will be the same for the first three years. For the next three years it will be 30 paise and in the last four years, 40 paise.