Water plant lag in arsenic belt

ABHIJEET CHATTERJEE AND INDRANIL SARKAR

The Telegraph, Issue Date: Monday , January 31 , 2011

Purbasthali, Jan. 30: A Rs 40-crore government scheme to provide purified drinking water to an arsenic-prone zone in Burdwan has been held up for the past six months because of delay in getting power connection.

Officials of the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL) said a portion of the high-tension power line would have to be laid under a stretch of railway tracks near the water-treatment plant at Purbasthali but the railways was yet to give permission.

WBSEDCL requires to lay the cable under the tracks between two stations on the Bandel-Katwa section to supply power to the plant from a 132KV substation.

The project was started by the public health engineering (PHE) department in 2008. Once completed, the plant will supply arsenic-free water to around 1.75 lakh people in 100 villages in Kalna, where the arsenic level in underground water is high. Purbasthali is under Kalna subdivision.

“Work on the water-treatment plant has been completed. We have also laid the pipeline and built four water reservoirs,” said Arabinda Sahu, the executive engineer (mechanical) of PHE, Burdwan. “But we have not been able to supply water to the people as we are yet to get electricity connection,” he added.

Sahu said WBSEDCL had given a temporary connection earlier this month but it was not enough to run the plant, which has a capacity to purify 10.8 million litres a day. He said the PHE department had applied for power connection in early 2009 and had paid Rs 95 lakh to WBSEDCL.

PHE officials said water would be fetched from the Bhagirathi river, 700 metres from the plant, and supplied to the villages after purification.

Anindya Kishore Manna, the WBSEDCL divisional engineer of Kalna, said the power utility had applied to the Howrah divisional railway manager for clearance but was yet to get the permission. “We had submitted necessary documents and project details to the railways but nothing has been done yet,” Manna said.

Howrah divisional railway manager P.S. Mandal, however, said he had already given the clearance. “As far as I can recall, I had given the clearance. I don’t know why the decision had not been communicated to WBSEDCL. I will look into the matter,” Mandal said.

Around 100 villages in and around Purbasthali’s Kamalnagar, where the plant has come up, are dependent on underground water.

“We use underground water for cooking, washing and bathing. But because of the presence of arsenic in the water, we suffer from skin problems,” said Dwarkanath Thakur, 53, a marginal farmer.

Krishnendu Haldar, the medical officer of Purbasthali block II, said villagers frequently came to the local health centre with symptoms of arsenic poisoning.

“They suffer from rashes, swellings, headache, drowsiness and discolouration of the skin and nails. We often refer such cases of arsenic poisoning to Calcutta’s SSKM and NRS. About 200 villagers from Purbasthali are now receiving treatment at the two hospitals,” Haldar said.

Buddhadeb blames activists for delaying development projects

Kolkata, 13th January: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee on Tuesday accused environmental activists of putting obstacles to implementation of various development projects through litigations.

"A lot of NGOs have mushroomed now and their job is to delay the projects by raising environmental concerns," Bhattacharjee said after laying the foundation stone of a water treatment plant near East Kolkata Wetlands, which is an ecologically fragile area included in the Ramsar list of wetlands. This particular project, spread over 20.15 acres, would start two years behind schedule after environmental activists moved Calcutta High Court for its being so near the east Kolkata wetlands, he said.

However, the HC allowed the project on December 24 and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation decided to complete the project of providing drinking water by treating water from the Hooghly river, the Chief Minister said. The water treatment plant with a capacity to treat 30 million gallons of water daily would be completed in three years and would provide drinking water to 10 lakh people living on the eastern fringes of the city.

Arsenic-free water supply in West Bengal by 2011

400 plants being developed in nine affected districts

BARASAT (North 24 Parganas): The West Bengal government aims to build arsenic-removal plants for the of supply arsenic-free drinking water by 2010-11 in all the 69 blocks across nine districts, said Kumar Jyoti Nath, chairman of the Arsenic Task Force of the State government.

Mr. Nath said that 400 arsenic-removal plants were being developed across the nine districts that would supply arsenic-free groundwater to people through a pipe network. Each plant would cater to the demand of about three villages.

About 16 million people living in rural areas and another 12 million in urban areas of the Gangetic West Bengal were at risk as the groundwater there was arsenic contaminated, he said.“Beside these plants, 12 mega water-filter plants are also being developed under the Central government’s Swajaldhara scheme that will purify the surface water, especially river water, for domestic supply,” Mr. Nath said. Each of these mega plants would cater to around one million people.

A delegation comprising German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, and German Ambassador Bernd Miitzelburg, visited an arsenic-removal plant here on Friday.

This plant and 60 others in various parts of the State, developed under an Indo-German public-private partnership project, have used the technology of the German Technological Cooperation.
Ninety per cent of the project is being funded by the Federal Republic of Germany.

“West Bengal is the first State in the country where such an initiative has been taken up and it has already benefited around one lakh people till now,” said Ms. Wieczorek-Zeul.