Kalrawas village is located in Bawal tehsil of Rewari district in Haryana, India. It is situated 14 km away from sub-district headquarter Bawal (tehsildar office) and 3 km away from district headquarter Rewari. Kalrawas is also a gram panchayat, headed by an elected Sarpanch.
The total geographical area of the village is 204 hectares. According to Census 2011, Kalrawas has a total population of 1,239 persons, out of which male population is 657 while female population is 582. Literacy rate of kalrawas village is 70.14% out of which 79.15% males and 59.97% females are literate. There are about 230 houses in Kalrawas village.
NEED FOR WATER TREATMENT
APL Logistics VASCOR Automotive Pvt. Ltd. expressed interest for making a social investment through their CSR fund for dealing with the water contamination issue in Haryana leading to a huge surge in Cancer cases. After discussion with APL we collectively identified Kalrawas village within Bawal Tehsil after reconnaissance survey of 8 villages in the vicinity, as the potential site to set up the proposed water treatment plant on account of APL’s local presence through their Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Bawal.
Prima facie, the generic data from the Central Ground Water Board indicates presence of salinity, fluoride, nitrate, iron etc. in ground water at different areas in Rewari. However, such sweeping water quality data was not adequate for designing an efficient system for purification of water. Hence, customized water and soil testing were undertaken in order to design an appropriate and efficient system of water treatment.
Sulabh International Social Service Organisation (SISSO) in collaboration with International Academy of Environmental Sanitation and Public Health (IAESPH) were happy to provide support to APL Logistics for setting up the water treatment plant and APL Logistics Vascor Automotive Pvt. Ltd. agreed to provide 70% funds under their CSR activity, SISSO making up for the balance project cost.
There are numerous technologies for cleaning contaminated water. The choice depends on the main contaminants present and their percentage. In Arsenic affected village areas in West Bengal, we have successfully demonstrated a simple yet affordable system of producing safe water by using surface water. The cost, the skill set requirement, operation and maintenance cost are reasonable compared to the chemical processes for removal of Arsenic. This technology may be termed as an ‘Appropriate Technology’ for places where there are perennial sources of surface water in abundance. Our simple systems are being operated by the respective village cooperatives for the past five years. We provide a tailor-made system based on the water quality of the source water. The technology is often a combination of slow sand filtration followed by filtering with different pore size filters (macro-filtration, micro-filtration, ultra-filtration), adsorption, active carbon filter, UV ray exposure (minimum 30 seconds) etc. However, the choices are very limited when the source water has very high TDS (total dissolved solids). In view of a village site where only tested technology and ease of repair and maintenance are of paramount importance, a reverse osmosis technology (RO) was chosen.
On the basis of the ground situation including demand from neighbouring villages, a facility with a designed production capacity of 15000 liters per day was planned, which would cater to drinking water needs of about 3000- 4000 persons. After thorough analysis of relevant water samples, the treatment facility was designed with the help of selected technology partner.
The facility would fill the potable water in a clean vessel of 10 liters capacity and sell to the village consumers at a nominal cost. The plant is housed in a properly designed covered shed on the land provided by the Panchayat.
On 30.06.2022, The plant was inaugurated by Mr. Ashish Bhatt, Chief Operating Officer, APL Logistics VASCOR Automotive Pvt. Ltd. on 30th June 2022, in the presence of Senior officials from APL, SISSO, IAESPH, Sarpanch of Kalrawas and a large number of villagers.