#water grid

[bestprojectsinindia]

Pump House and Intake Well under Balangir Drinking Water Supply Scheme, Odisha... #meil #megha #meghaengineering #meilcompany #balangir #odisha #drinkingwater Best Projects In India Bestproject BestProjectsin India Meil Bestproject  Water.org Water grid #BALANGIR Balangir

[bestprojectsinindia]

భైంసా వాటర్ గ్రిడ్ తో ఆదివాసీ గ్రామాలకు తాగునీరు అందిస్తున్న మేఘా

[bestprojectsinindia]

వరంగల్-పాలేరు వాటర్ గ్రిడ్ తో గ్రామీణుల గొంతు తడుపుతున్న మేఘా || Bestp...

[bestprojectsinindia]

Water-Treatment-Plant #Gouridevipally

#bestprojectsinindia

[odunghat-blog]

Blue Revolution: Where, What and How?

What does a man do when he finds out, shortly after taking charge, that over 70% of his people are facing acute water shortage throughout the year? He dreams a solution like no other in his own quintessential style, he dreams big and strives to put this dream into reality. Who was this man and what was his dream? The man is anybody’s guess, what matters here is his revolutionary solution and where it stands now.

Blue Revolution: Where, what and how?

The What would be to provide answer to one of India’s largest drinking water and farm-irrigation problems, a revolutionary and permanent solution arrived at in a span of few years aided by visionary thinking and backed by rock-solid community involvement.

The Where would be Gujarat, a state which has three large regions that face a drought every other year, Kutch, Saurashtra and North Gujarat, and a sizeable number of people battling salination and ground-water contamination.

And the How would be by constructing a mammoth state-wide water-grid system, considered one the world’s largest. Let’s see some details:

A system larger than that of the Indian Railway Network, almost 6 times the length of the Great Wall of China and a network that can circle the Earth three times over.

Over 3.7 lakh tonne of steel melted and molded to construct the pipelines that are over 1.2 lakh kilometer long, enough to build Eiffel Tower a few hundred times over.

2700 km of bulk pipelines, large enough to let a Maruti 800 drive through, were laid out, coated with 3 layer polyethylene and food-grade epoxy to prevent corrosion, another first for India.

23,693 storage and hydraulic structures with a combined capacity of 3.86 billion liters.

181 water-treatment plants processing 3 billion liters per day.

305 reverse-osmosis plants to combat salinity and water contamination.

377 projects reaching over 75% of Gujarat’s population, 15,000 villages and 145 towns. That’s over 40 million people.

Regional schemes, extensive infrastructure to protect local water resources and inter-basin bulk water transfer enabled through the Narmada canal, with Sardar Sarovar dam being backbone for the project. 

Effectively brought down village water distribution through tankers from 4054 villages in 2001 to 296 in 2013.

A mammoth project that costs about Rs. 8800 crores on maintenance and operation alone.

Management and Oversight: Maintained and operated by Water and Sanitation Management Organisation (WASMO) which in turn is managed by village based pani samitis. Over 18,000 pani samitis across villages and towns of Gujarat (wo)manned by 68,000 women. This pioneering community involvement has let to WASMO winning:

2008 PM of India award for excellence in public administration for initiating drinking water management with community participation.

2009 UN Public Service Award for fostering community participation.

2010 award from Commonwealth Association for Public administration and Management

Where does this visionary approach put Gujarat and Gujaratis in terms household water distribution? At almost double the national average with Gujarat averaging at 78% in households with water connection while the national average is at 37%.

Putting things into perspective, Blue Revolution has not just alleviated water problems in an effective and revolutionary way but also enriched the lives of millions, which is an excellent example of participatory and community-based resource management and a revolution that truly bears the stamp of decisive leadership.

(Compiled from various sources.)