289 households register in Phase I; maintenance poses problem
SHILLONG: For a city that stares at water crisis for several months a year something called a water ATM can certainly be termed precious. The water ATM at Pynthorbah, the first of its kind in the State, has so far benefited 400 of the 2,000 households here.
Speaking to The Shillong Times, headman of Pynthorbah Batskhem Sten said, “The water ATM has definitely helped the residents. Each household gets 10 litres (of drinking water) per day for free. In winter, water is drawn from the PHE tank if it overflows and in summer, it is taken from the natural spring. However, we generally depend on the overflow of the PHE tank.”
The water ATM was installed under the initiative of South Asian Forum for Environment (SAFE). In this venture, MUDA has partnered with SAFE to make the project a reality.
Sten said each household has a ATM card for drawing water from the machine and the monthly recharge is free. He said 289 households have already been registered and more are coming forward to get registered in the second phase.
However, Sten pointed out a few glitches, technical and financial, in the functioning of the water machine. He said the machine runs on electricity which makes it inconsistent considering that the State is reeling under severe power crisis. Another shortcoming is the maintenance of the machine. “We have an operator and the World Bank pays him Rs 5,500 per month. We are worried about the maintenance cost of the machinery, especially the reverse osmosis (RO) plant that costs over Rs 7 lakh. There is no trouble as long as the World Bank finances the technology but we don’t know for how long it will do so,” Sten said.
A bio-toilet was also installed in April. But soon after its installation, the toilet was damaged by miscreants. So the Dorbar Shnong engaged a guard at the site at a monthly salary of Rs 3,000.
Sten said the burden of paying the salary of the operator has fallen upon the Dorbar Shnong. He said, “For the last two months, the World Bank did not pay him (the guard) his salary. We were assured by WB that the money paid can be adjusted later but till date nothing has come up.”