IIT Kharagpur develops community supported supply of purified drinking water project in Bengal District

The IIT Kharagpur has developed a community supported supply of purified drinking water project at Porapara in West Midnapore district of West Bengal. Dr Somnath Ghosal of the Rural Development Centre of IIT KGP has installed a fully-automated multi-filtered UV treated drinking water facility which can provide close to 1000 litres of purified drinking water to 60 families every day at Rs one per family. The land was freely provided by a villager & on it, IIT KGP build the infrastructure and funded the entire project. The entire operation of the unit, its upkeep and daily management, are being done by the villagers who have formed 3 committees to manage the operations. It is an “install and self-operate” arrangement in which the current and future financial needs are to be met by the villagers from the fund collected in the form of the daily payment for water. Dr. Ghosal has recently filed for a patent for the technology used in Porapara.