The Travancore Devaswom Board has made arrangements to produce 10,000 litres of medicated drinking water per hour (lph) at the Sabarimala Sannidhanam during the Mandalam-Makaravilakku pilgrim season that begins on November 16.
TDB member Ajay Tharayil told The Hindu that the board supplied an average of 67,000 litres of medicated drinking water at Sabarimala daily during the previous pilgrim season.
The board had installed two boilers at Saramkuthi from where boiled water could be supplied through a specially laid pipeline.
Mr. Tharayil said the TDB would install 28 more medicated drinking water kiosks at Sabarimala and on the trekking path, increasing the total number of kiosks to 40 this year. This was besides the 60 UV water purifiers to be installed at various Devaswom buildings at the Sannidhanam.
He said five reverse osmosis (RO) plants, each having a capacity to produce 1,000 lph of purified water, had been installed at the Sannidhanam and two more plants with a capacity to produce 5,000 lph would be installed in the next two weeks.
A rough estimate shows that as many as 30 lakh bottles of drinking water were sold at Sabarimala during the previous pilgrim season. However, with the ban on PET bottles, soft-drink manufacturers are expected to make bumper sales at the pilgrim centre this year.
The companies have started large-scale supply of soft-drinks in eco-friendly cans to Sabarimala and Pampa.
Devotees’ concern
However, many devotees have expressed doubts over the efficacy of water kiosks in meeting the drinking water demand at Sabarimala during the pilgrim season.
“Though the Kerala Water Authority and the TDB claimed to have made elaborate arrangements to facilitate easy availability of drinking water in Sabarimala by opening a network of drinking water kiosks, it is difficult to foresee how it is going to benefit the people during rush days of the pilgrim season,” a devotee said.
