Scarcity-hit Kale village gets district's first water ATM

Kolhapur: Satara district's first water ATM, providing five litre of drinking water at Re 1, became operational at Kale village in Karad taluka on Monday.
Kale, which is situated around 10km from Karad, has no direct water source such as lake, river or dam. Around 9,000 residents of the village are totally dependent on ground water for meeting their daily water needs, which has resulted in various health problems among the villagers.
"We do not know whether the ground water is contaminated, however, health problems are a routine in our village. Last year, we came to know about water ATM project and decided to establish the same in our village to provide clean drinking water to the residents at an affordable price," said Shailaja Patil, sarpanch of the village.
The project worth Rs 5 lakh was completed using gram panchayat funds. "As many as 400 families have benefited from the water ATM since it became operational on Monday. It can process 2,000 litres of water in an hour. We are using sand filters, carbon filters and micron cartridges model to clean the water. The ultraviolet water purification method is being used at Kale," said Rajendrakumar Jadhav, gramsevak of the village.
As of now the grampanchayat is analysing the utility of the project, following which it may install more such ATMs in the village using the funds made available under the 14th Finance Commission.