Head to the park for pots of water

Poonamallee Municipality ties up with a company and provides water from a vending machine to residents

The automated water machine at a public park in Nanbargal Nagar in Poonamallee.

Every morning, V. Karuppan, a resident of Poonamallee, cycles to the public park in Nanbargal Nagar in Poonamallee, accompanied by his grandson. They carry two capacious plastic pots with them.

After his routine walk along with his grandson, Karuppan proceeds to fill the pots with water from an automated water machine at the park. Each pot can hold 20 litres of water.

The duo returns home, pushing the bicycle on which hang the pots filled with water. There are others like Karuppan who have been heading to the park every day for water, since six months ago when the Poonamallee Municipality along with Kumbh Pearl Water Purifiers Private Limited, started providing each family with a daily quota of purified water — 40 litres being the maximum limit.

“This supply of purified water helps us especially during summer. We use the purified water for drinking,” says S. Vanaja, a resident of Poonamallee.

The Municipality tied up with the private water company and set up this purified water vending machine at the park, to meet a daily water deficit (which is the difference between the supply by the Municipality and the demand) that it has been facing.

At present, Ward 21 is the only ward that has a water-vending machine. The local body has proposed a project to extend the facility to the other 20 wards by the end of this year.

As per the project, the Municipality provides land (park) and the existing borewell in the park and the private water company has to maintain the facility including paying their staff, electricity charges and general maintenance of the water machine for 10 years.

Residents of areas within the Municipality limits can enrol themselves for the scheme. They should fill an application form providing details such as permanent address along with photocopies of their Aadhaar card for address proof.

Each person is provided with a swipe card for fetching water from the machine. Each card holder can get only 40 litres of water per day. The facility is open round-the-clock.

At present, on an average, around 300 families use the facility every day.