A wonderful solution to water pollution!

Two fully automated safe drinking water plants installed in villages near Cuddalore – A CSR initiative of Alfa Laval.

Cuddalore in the state of Tamil Nadu is a fishermen port district with chemical, pharmacological and energy industries. SIPCOT is its industrial area. Alfa Laval has a large customer base in this region.

 

Cuddalore has many challenges for clean drinking water. The area has harsh weather conditions prone to cyclones and floods. The salinity levels in the water are very high presence of chemicals like nitrates and chlorides are also found in the water. In addition, the water is prone to microbial contamination.

Alfa Laval recently installed two clean drinking water plants in villages of Kadikudi and Karaikudi in Cuddalore through WaterLife. WaterLife is a social enterprise specializing in building and operating stand-alone water purification plants in underserved areas of India that would otherwise have no access to safe drinking water. Water will be provided at a very reasonable price. The plant has a 10-stage fully automated water purification system. These Water “ATMs,” are cloud-managed, solar-powered, cashless vending machines providing clean drinking water 24 hours a day.  Since in summer the place gets very hot, the plant has a facility for providing chilled water.

These two plants together will cater to a total community of more than 11000 people.

The project also generates job opportunity for two of the residents, mostly a needy woman, who are trained and employed as a plant operator at each site.  The amount collected from the villagers goes towards maintenance cost and salary of the plant operator.

With this project Alfa Laval will contribute towards UN’s sustainability goal 6 “Clean Water and Sanitation” - safe and affordable drinking water for all.  This project will be maintained by WaterLife for a period of 10 years and the life of the plant is 25 years. A well planned outreach programme ensures that the beneficiaries are involved from the beginning to make the project successful.

With this CSR initiative of Alfa Laval, safe drinking water will now be available to the residents of the two villages. In addition, since the water jars are easy to transport, the men can carry them on their motor bikes. This project will also help in reducing the water borne preventable diseases especially in children.

The two plants were inaugurated on 21st November 2018 and handed over to the local community.  Present at the inauguration were Senior officials from our customers including Asian Paints, Coramandel International, Solara Active Pharma Sciences, EID Parry.  From Alfa Laval Mr. Vinod Bidwaik, Vice President HR, Mr. Dhiraj Singh, Head Food and Water, Ms. Lalita Vasu, CSR Manager, Mr. S Lakshmanan, Regional Sales Manager, South and Mr. A Varadharajan CSR Ambassador were present. Also present were Mr. RP Durai and Mr. Anandan the chiefs of the Panchayat (local governing body), office bearers and villagers.

This CSR initiative of Alfa Laval was very much appreciated by the beneficiaries, local authorities and customers. 

Mr. M. Arun Kumar, Deputy Manager HR of Coromandel International said, “Safe drinking water, being the core of human life, is very much a need and such an initiative is much required  in salt water areas like Cuddalore, This is a very good initiative especially  for rural people.”

Says Mr. P. Jayakanthan, Senior Production Manager at Asian Paints, “Your CSR efforts nearby our unit are highly appreciated. 10-year O & M is the key game changer. You can count on us for any support with respect to these activities.”