Bihar set to get cheapest drinking water in world

patna — An innovative cost-effective drinking water project in Bihar promises to lower the price of onelitre bottle to 50 paise — cheapest in the world.

The project — Sulabh Jal — was launched on Saturday in Darbhanga by Sulabh International. It will convert contaminated pond water into safe drinking water.

“Sulabh International, an organisation that introduced the concept of ‘Sulabh Shauchalya’ in the country decades ago from Bihar, today (Saturday) laid the foundation stone for an innovative project which will provide cheapest drinking water in the world costing only 50 paisa per litre,” said a statement from the social service organisation.

“Sulabh Jal will be made available through various stages of purification. It can offer safe drinking water from any water body such as a river or a pond,” it said.

Sulabh International founder Bindeshwar Pathak laid the foundation for the project at Haribol Pond on Darbhanga Nagar Nigam premises.

“The project work will start soon. By December it will be functional,” Pathak said.

Installation of the project would cost around Rs2 million and it would have a capacity to produce 8,000 litres of potable water per day at a nominal cost.

“Local people and NGOs are going to maintain it. It is a self-sustainable project with active participation of the community. It will also generate employment,” he said.

Pathak said before launching the project in Darbhanga, which houses a very large number of ponds, Sulabh had undertaken a similar drive in the neighboring state of West Bengal in collaboration with French organization “1001 Fontaines”. —