SHILLONG: In a first in the State, a water ATM will come up at Pynthorbah locality in the city on Wednesday.
Thanks to the initiative of the South Asian Forum for Environment (SAFE), a civil society organization working towards sustainable development in the Indian eco region, residents of the locality which regularly faces acute water shortage will no longer have to bear the brunt of water crisis.
The community based concept was developed as per the latest technology for water conservation entitled Nonconventional Energy, Water& Sanitation for Urban Poor (NEWS-UP) Project deploys complete community governance through water budgeting for common usage and as revenue linked sustainable model for a climate adaptive city.
“Its salient features are 24X7 equitable distribution of water through water ATM daily dispensing up to 10,000 liters of safe WHO standard drinking water,” said the NGO.
MUDA has partnered with SAFE to make the project a reality.
The features of the project are that the members of the community having 400 plus households will be using gender friendly water ATM cards for secured supply of water, saving queue time and relieving drudgery. An additional feature will be a state of art bio-sanitation unit flushed with the refusal water from water treatment plant for men and women.
The project can also generate organic manures from the refusals of bio-toilets and integrated solid municipal waste management.
According to the NGO, this community led project generating revenues from services and non-conventional energy from wastes is a pioneering example that can be replicated in all parts of India as a smart city solution for the marginal communities.
The NGO said that in the Meghalaya context, there is still a wide gap between the urban affluent few and the emaciated masses devoid of basic amenities like water and sanitation.
Many localities in the city such as Lower Nongrim Hills, Gora Line, Nongmynsong and others have been under severe water scarcity since ages and people are living in terribly unhygienic conditions due to water shortage, SAFE observed.
The NGO further observed that children and women have to walk miles to collect water and many people come all the way to the Umpling stream to wash clothes and take drinking water all the way from the springs.
In localities like Lower Nongrim Hills people filter shallow water from the wells and drink it, whereas, in some areas of upper Laban, people purchase water from nearby streams, the NGO said.
The urban elite and the urban poor both endure this divide and often look for a sustainable solution because water is directly related to growth and development, the NGO added.
