Nagaland first State to have solar water treatment units

Principal Correspondent
Kohima, June 13

Nagaland today became the first State in the country to have an innovative water solution technology project – “Solar powered water treatment Unit” in three villages of the state capital.
Minister for PHED Noke Wangnao officially inaugurated the water treatment unit at Tsiesema village, about 13 kms away from the state capital Kohima, while two others units have already been installed and are functional in Meriema and Kijumetouma village.
These are the most water scarce villages of Kohima district, Wangnao said in his inaugural address while stating that the project is funded by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India under the new programme launched in the year 2009 — The National Rural Drinking Water Program (NRDWP).Mumbai-based company Adittya Corporation developed the solar powered water treatment unit in order to provide sustainable good quality water supply system to the villages, he said.
Stating that water is a basic necessity for the survival and development of human beings, he said it is essential that water supply is sufficient as well as of good quality free from all diseases causing germs and excess chemicals.
In Nagaland, he said, due to the peculiar nature of the topography of the land and the unique cultural and social practices, more and more villages are emerging where all primarily preferred options such as water supply by gravity or bore wells are not possible.
“This entails that we have to look for other options and technologies in the form of rain water harvesting system, water supply by pumping and revival of traditional wells,” Wangnao added.
Despite the fact that huge infrastructure have been created for providing drinking water supply to villages during the last few decades, he said the Government in general and PHE department in particular are facing the unprecedented challenges in its mission to provide water security in the villages and at household level in the State.
Highlighting the challenges, he said out of a total of 1530 villages/habitations in the State, 1027 villages/habitations (i.e. about 67%) fall under partially covered category with water supply level less than 40 litres per capita per day. Most of these villages which have been provided with drinking water facility at one time, have actually far outlived their design life needing urgent repair and replacement which requires huge funds.
Many of the villages are situated on top of hills with very small and undependable water sources or with a water source which has completely dried up due to several factors, he said adding that there is an urgent need to do something for such villages in peril.
In order to really bring about a suitable drinking water supply system, the beneficiary community has to come forward to take complete responsibility for the day – today water supply Operation and Maintenance. For this, he said we have set up WATSAN Committees in as many as 1142 villages under the communitization program in the State.
The three villages where we have currently installed Solar Powered Water Treatment Unit are ones of such categories where all other conventional methods are not feasible economically, he said while encouraging the villages to take great care of the created assets so that the installed systems may be able to give good service for a long time to come.
Presenting the technical report of SPWTU, PHED Chief Engineer Er. Kevisekho Kruse said the three units are valued at Rs 149.61 lakh to provide drinking water facility to 2639 people of the three villages.
On the components of the unit, he said the Additya Solar operated Advanced Membrane Filtration system is designed mainly to give pure drinking water to the people.
The system removes upto 99.99 % bacteria from water selectively without hampering other water elements and taste, he said adding it is fully automatic, solar operated water treatment unit with very low power consumption & operating costs.
The product water is of very high quality drinking water and therefore, should not be wasted or misused, he said.
Shorts speeches were also delivered by chairman of Meriema Village Council Thinuokhrielie Ciesotsu, chairman of Kijümetouma Village Council and managing partner Additya Corporation, Mumbai Shaleen Apurva.
The programme was chaired by Principal Secretary, PHED & IFCD, R. Binchilo Thong. Chairman of Tsiesema Village Council Viyielhou delivered the welcome address and the vote of thanks was tendered by SE, PHED, Kohima Circle Er. Y Tep. A special number was presented by Tsiesema Cultural Group.