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Use of low-cost technologies to provide drinking water and solar energy in Sundarbans,West Bengal
ShareFrom Sujoy Chaudhury, GOAL India Field Office, Kolkata
Posted 23 August 2011
I am Sujoy Chaudhury working with the GOAL India Field Office on issues concerning sustainable development. I am working on developing appropriate solutions for drinking water and sanitation in the Sundarbans, West Bengal.
In the Sundarbans I have observed, the current practice of extracting groundwater for drinking, using deep tube wells from depths in excess of 1000 feet is cost intensive (sinking these tube wells cost at an average INR 1, 25,000. In addition most tube wells (for a host of reasons) function efficiently for only about two years on an average. Further, the environmental impact of this method of extraction is not known but assumed to have severe impact.
I would like to know how to make safe drinking water available to the communities in the Sundarbans without having to depend on high investments, or cause severe environmental impact.
Therefore, I request Water Community members to please share with me the following:
- Are there any successful demonstrations of how surface water (saline in this case) has been treated/modified using techniques/technologies that are not energy intensive and require very small investments?
- Are there specific examples relating to using renewable energy, solar energy in particular?
The information provided by members will be used to inform GOAL projects, on the design of pilot interventions in one block of the Sunderbans in 2012.
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Dear Mr. Sujoy Choudhary:
Reverse osmosis based water purification systems can be an effective solution to your saline water purification needs.
We have our model of community RO systems where in you'll be able to grant access to your community for a price that will come less than the savings in the medical bills of your beneficiaries on account of adopting safe drinking water practices.
To further elaborate, a community RO plant adequate for meeting drinking/cooking water requirements of 500-600 families may come to less than Rs. 400 per beneficiary family and a recurring cost of less than Re. 1 per family (of say 5 members) per day.
Detailed scheme can be shared on call. We have pioneered this model in 1999 and by now we have about 50 community plants in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi and Karnataka. Model has been replicated with/without fine tuning by numerous other players in the water community including Naandi in Punjab, Haryana; Byraju in Tamil Nadu.
We will be glad to participate in your initiatives charging you for the treatment facility or just provide you free inputs.
Best,
We are looking for inexpensive ways to provide clean water to cancer prone area/villages in Punjab. Could you please share you expertise via email?
Thanks