Batti gets State-of-the-Art water treatment plant

Dharma SRI ABEYRATNE

The government has constructed a mega scale water treatment plant at Vavunativu, Batticaloa aiming to address the long standing drinking water scarcity issue of Batticaloa district.

The plant Picture by Lalith C Gamage

The new sophisticated water treatment plant which is constructed at a cost of Rs.700 million at Vavunativu provides water to people in several areas of the Batticaloa district.

The water treatment plant operated under the National Water Supply and Drainage Board provides purified water for around 30,000 persons of 3,000 families.

"When it comes to essential elements of living beings, water plays a major role.The Vavunativu water treatment plant will fulfill a long felt need of people in the Batticaloa district," Resettlement Deputy Minister V Muralitharan said.

People in most parts of Batticaloa district had been facing difficulties due to the water scarcity. The ageing water treatment plant did not have sufficient capacity to supply purified water throughout the day.

The new water treatment plant has a capacity of 40,000 cubic metres per day. After commencing operations the plant is able to supply water without any disruption satisfying the needs of 30,000 people.

In line with the construction process of the new water treatment plant, a new intake pump house has been constructed to take more water from Unnativu tank. Besides a high lift pumping station has also been constructed.

Underground pipe-lines have been laid for water conveying. "Intake pumps have been replaced with remotely operated modern pumps.

"When it comes to the operation of the new water treatment plant it can be operated with GSM signals which are used in mobile phones. This is a novel technology, which we haven't used so far. Operators can perform any function such as opening or closing valves, switching on or off any machine with a GSM signal easily," a National Water Supply and Drainage Board official said.