With water ATM, relief trickles in for Nirgudsar villagers

Rohan Pawar a resident of the neighbouring Javale village, says: “Access to drinking water is a major issue in our area. This ATM is the only economical outlet where I can buy drinking water without burning a hole in my pocket,” he said. On a daily basis, Pawar fills a 20 litre water jar by swiping his pre paid card at the ATM. “Here, water costs me only Rs 10 per jar. If I was to buy the same jar from the village shop, I would have to pay Rs 150,” he said. It has been a few weeks since the water ATM has been installed on the periphery wall of the water treatment plant of Nirgudsar, but takers are already lining up. Operating on the same principal of a pre paid mobile phone, the ATM can be operated using a pre-loaded card. Housed in a special case, the ATM has a swiping counter and water outlet. The ATM unit is connected to the tanks inside the treatment plant, containing the treated water, and is operated by a booster pump. Swiping the card across the sensor activates the ATM and a single swipe dispenses a litre of water. After the card is swiped, the LED counter displays the remaining balance on the card. Cards can be filled at the counter of the water treatment plant.

Ramdas Walse, deputy sarpanch of Nirgudsar, said the villagers had taken the decision to install the water treatment plant a year ago due to high pollution level of Ghod river.

“Our village is situated on the river bank and we use water from the river for daily needs and for consumption. Over use of chemical fertilizers and discharge of untreated sewage has polluted the river over the years,” he said.

Drinking this polluted water, says Walse, has affected their health. Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) had classified Ghod under the A-2 category which makes its water unfit for human consumption without treatment. Also, the river water testing revealed high presence of faecal coliform ( a facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped, gram-negative, non-sporulating bacterium) in the river. Vasant Walse, member of the Nirgudsar gram panchayat, said that since last 5 years, incidents of urinary track infection, stomach infection, fever etc were on the rise in the village .With monetary support of the local sugar mill, the villagers had started a reverse osmosis plant for water treatment in the village a year ago. Even earlier, the panchayat decided to charge the villagers for water. The rate of selling water was kept at 0.50 paise per litre.A year since its operation, the water treatment plant in the village had recently added an ATM facility for round-the-clock availability of water. This says Shraddha Jadhav, sarpanch of the village, is to allow people access to treated water 24/7.

“Many of the villagers work odd hours and the counter for selling water closes at 6 pm. But the ATM operates round the clock,” she said. Around 60 pre paid cards have been sold, with the number increasing by the day. Other than villagers of Nirgudsar, those from the neighbouring villages have started purchasing the card.Both the water treatment plant and the ATM at present is working onelectricity with the monthly bill coming to around Rs 7,000. The gram panchayat now has plans to install solar panels to make it eco friendly too.