NEW DELHI: In a bid to provide clean water to every household in the city, the Delhi government has planned to install 500 water ATMs to provide drinking water treated using the Reverse Osmosis (RO) process to people in slums and other such densely populated areas, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Monday.
The Delhi government said that the initiative is aimed to eliminate the reliance on water tankers and empower communities with reliable and convenient access to safe drinking water.
Kejriwal inaugurated the first Water-ATM at Mayapuri Phase Two Khajan Basti, marking the beginning of a new era for water distribution in the city.
With this launch, the underprivileged sections of the city will now have access to the same quality of RO water that has long been accessible to the more affluent segments of society.
The government said that the Water-ATMs operate through a user-friendly system, where consumers are provided with Water-ATM Cards. Each card enables users to collect 20 litres of water per day from the designated RO plants for free.
Under the pilot project, four RO plants have already been established, and the process of setting up an impressive network of 500 additional RO plants is currently underway.
Kejriwal said that there are several such areas where water is supplied to the citizens through water tankers. "Using recent technology the government has decided to start a new initiative in such densely populated areas.”
He added, “We will be installing tubewells, but this can only be done in areas where the water level is high. The issue with installing tubewells is that the water quality is not good. So now we will pass the water from tubewells through an RO.”