Two coastal villages in Ganjam to get desalinated seawater

Berhampur: For the first time in Odisha, two coastal villages in Ganjam district will soon receive desalinated seawater for daily use, including drinking, an official said on Sunday. The water will be supplied from the seawater desalination plant of the Odisha Sands Complex (OSCOM), a unit of Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL), located in Matikhal, near Chhatrapur.

Ganjam district administration on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding with IREL, a Central government PSU, to facilitate this initiative. Under the agreement, IREL will supply around 1.5 million litres per day (MLD) of desalinated water to Matikhal and Arjeepalli villages, benefiting around 7,000 people.

Additionally, IREL will provide Rs 4.20 crore to the State government for laying pipelines and constructing other infrastructure needed to distribute water. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the seawater desalination plant of IREL on March 5 last year during his visit to Bhubaneswar.

After multiple rounds of testing and stabilising the 4.5 MLD capacity plant, IREL has now decided to supply water to nearby villages, alongside meeting its own industrial needs at OSCOM. The OSCOM chief, C V R Murthy, said the plant was installed primarily to meet industrial and potable drinking water needs of employees of the organisation and to provide RO water to nearby villages for drinking purposes.

Ganjam District Collector Dibya Jyoti Parida assured full support in developing the necessary infrastructure in these two villages to facilitate water supply. The Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) provided the technology for desalination, while the Atomic Energy Department sponsored the project, which cost around Rs 130 crore, Murthy said.

Meanwhile, Berhampur MP Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy has urged IREL to establish another desalination plant to supply potable drinking water to additional areas, including Chhatrapur town and villages under Chhatrapur and Rangeilunda blocks. Currently, the Rushikulya river water system, which supplies less than 20 MLD of water, serves OSCOM, Berhampur University, Army Air Defence College and parts of Berhampur town.

However, during peak summer, water supply from the system is drastically reduced, leading to a severe water crisis in these areas, sources said.