QUESTION
Use of low-cost technologies to provide drinking water and solar energy in Sundarbans,West Bengal

From 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.

Download the below attachment for response


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23 August 2011