In surendranagar, the district police have taken up a new task of catering to the needs of both the locals and their own for potable water at affordable rates. The move highlights a larger problem of scarcity of potable water faced by a significant portion of the district population.

The groundwater available in the district is not potable, with the level of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) ranging from 700 TDS to 5,000 TDS in different parts of the district. Experts say that according to World Health Organisation (WHO) norms, the maximum level of TDS in drinking water should not be more than 500.

To overcome this, District Superintendent of Police Ashok Yadav conceptualised the idea of setting up a mineral water plant at their headquarters. This aims to provide clean drinking water to the policemen and their families living in the police quarters at concessional rates of Rs 5 per unit of 20 litres of water.

In June this year, the mineral water plant was set up with the help of Police Welfare Fund. “We are getting drinking water from Dholi Dhaja Dam. This, however, is not potable and needs to be purified. So, we decided to set up a mineral water plant on ‘no profit, no loss’ basis,” said Yadav.

As several others there are also facing a similar problem, many of them opted to buy mineral water from the police.

R R Savdharia, retired chief engineer of the Water Supply Board and technical advisor to Water and Sanitation Management Organisation (WASMO), said the “old problem is worst in the taluka centres of Limbdi, Lakhtar, Dashada and Chotila”.

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