Alfa Laval, a leading global supplier of products and solutions for heat transfer, separation, and fluid handling, launched Water ATM’s at Maraimalai and Avadi municipalities near Chennai. The Maraimalai Nagar commissioner, Tmt. V. Vijayakumari inaugurated the event and was present in person at the Kantangulathur plant. Mr. Venkatesh, Municipal Engineer, and Mrs. Senbagavalli, Joint Engineer were also present. She was happy with the facilities and the benefits it will provide to the community. Water ATMs are expected to cater to more than 3000 households belonging to the marginalized and underprivileged communities in these areas. The second plant at Gandhi Park was remotely inaugurated by Mr. Ramdas Salunke, Head Marine & Service, Alfa Laval India.
Present at the Virtual inauguration ceremony were senior officials from Alfa Laval including Mr. Ramdas Salunke, Vice President Marine and Service, and Mr. Nishant Srivastava, Vice President Legal and Company Secretary, Ms. Lalita Vasu, CSR Manager, Ms. Rajita Kumar, Head Communications & Brand, Mr. K. Parameswaran Regional Sales Manager. Also present online were Mr. Mohan Ranbaore, MD of Water Life. All precautions with respect to Covid-19 were taken during the inauguration. Two people were present at the inaugural site who maintained all infection risk prevention norms like wearing masks, social distancing and sanitizing
These plants are 10 stages, cloud-managed, solar-powered, cashless water ATMs. The plant has a 10-stage fully automated water purification system. Each of these plants has 1000 liters per hour processing capacity and is geared to be operational for 8 hours a day, thus providing up to 8000 liters of water a day per site. These water ATMs have facilities for providing chilled water during summer. Though the plants are operational for 8 hours the water can be collected by the residents for 24 hours via non-contact taps and sensor panels installed outside the plant.
Water at these ATMs is available at an affordable price of Rs. 7/- per can of 20 liters. The water is provided against a pre-loaded card with a registration process. Each family can take 2 cans per day which will meet the needs of a family of five persons. The amount collected for water will go towards the maintenance cost and salary of the plant operator.
Speaking on the occasion Mr. Ramdas said “Access to safe drinking water is every citizen’s right and we at Alfa Laval is committed to it. Chennai depends entirely on groundwater for its water source. We will be installing more such ATMs in other municipalities and villages in Tamil Nadu in near future.” Mr. Nishant Srivastava added “The salinity levels in the water in areas like Maraimalai and Avadi are extremely high and depleting groundwater increases the presence of chemicals microbial contamination in the water. We found that two major issues that restrict access to purified drinking water are availability and affordability. With the installation of Water ATMs, we are attempting to address these issues and provide clean and safe drinking water to the needy.”
The plants are located near Gandhi Park and Kattanakulathur in Maraimalainagar. The plant for Avadi will be inaugurated in the first week of August 2020.
Alfa Laval has roped in WaterLife, a social enterprise specializing in building and operating stand-alone water purification plants in underserved areas of India as its implementation partner for this Water ATM project. This project will be maintained by WaterLife for a period of 10 years. and the life of the plants is 25 years. This initiative will also provide job opportunities for residents in the area, who will be trained and employed as a plant operator at each site.
To know more, please check Alfa Laval.