Varanasi may get cheapest drinking water at 50 paise/litre

People in the pilgrim town of Varanasi may soon get the cheapest drinking water at 50 paise per litre.

Using a recently developed technology, Sulabh International, a social organisation active in the field of sanitation, will set up a drinking water plant at the historic Assi Ghat in Varanasi in joint venture with a French organisation.

Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak said on Thursday that under this new technology, contaminated water of the river Ganga would be converted into pure drinking water at very nominal cost.

The proposed plant will process around  8,000 litre of pure drinking water daily at the Assi ghat in Varanasi, which was the Lok Sabha constituency of prime minister Narendra Modi.  “The plant will be established within next three months,” Pathak said.

He said Sulabh will approach the authorities to seek permission for setting up the plant. “It will cost Rs 20 lakh and we will bear the entire expenditure,” Pathak added.

Pathak said the Ganga water would be chemically treated to make it safe for drinking. “It will cost 50 paise per litre – making it the cheapest drinking water in the world,” he remarked.
The innovative model was the result of a joint venture of Sulabh International and a French organisation “1001 Fontaines”, which, through various stages of purification, provides safe drinking water from any water bodies like rivers or ponds.