Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), in partnership with General Electric (GE) Foundation, has started a 'community managed reverse osmosis water supply system' project aimed at making available safe drinking water to 10 coastal villages in Junagarh and Porbandar districts under the Kharash Vistarotthan Yojana (KVY). On July 22, 2010, two such community managed RO-based water supply systems were handed over to villages — Miyani in Porbandar and Loyaj in Junagarh. The occasion was graced by FJ Gandavia, secretary and chief accountant, Sir Ratan Tata Trust; Rajesh Adhyam, commercial development manager, GE Infrastructure (water and process technology); and Aslam Karmali, CEO, consumer division, Eureka Forbes; and R Vednarayanan, regional head, Rural Channel; along with representatives of the Trust, WASMO, SAVA, AKRSP and others.

The project, in its entirety, will cover approximately 4,000 households (population 25,000) in the 10 villages.

Divyang Waghela, team leader, KVY, says that the problem of water salinity is being tackled through embracing high-tech solutions such as reverse osmosis, ultraviolet filtration and the expertise and support of GE, which provides the technical backbone for such projects.

The project has identified 10 villages with saline drinking water source and no alternative. The plants will be run with the assistance of the project in the first year, post which, the village communities will take care of the operation and maintenance.

Presently many families of these villages are suffering from water-related diseases. The project will ensure the quality of water (something that isn't a given when buying water from private suppliers) and also provide water at lower rates.

The remaining eight RO-based plants will be installed, and be operational, within the next few months.

SRTT has provided financial support for the implementation of water supply and sanitation infrastructure; whereas GE Foundation has donated RO equipments. Coastal Salinity Prevention Cell (CSPC) has played a pivotal role of nodal agency to conceive the project and facilitated the coordination among various stakeholders. The implementation of the project has been done by respective Village Water Committees whereas local implementation support orgainsations namely Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India) in Mangrol block of Junagadh district and Saurashtra Voluntary Actions (SAVA) in Porbandar block Porbandar district have facilitated the process of community mobilisation and institutional building to make the system sustainable. Eureka Forbes Limited has provided technical support for installation of RO and other water purification systems and ENV-DAS India Private Limited has provided technical consultancy for implementation of water supply system.

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