delhi

Updated: Jun 19, 2017 23:54 IST

To reduce the use of plastic water bottles, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has initiated a project to installing 100 water ATMs, where people can get chilled filtered water at just Rs 2 for 250 ml in paper glasses. And if you have bottle to carry the water, it is available at just Rs 5 per litre.

The agency installed a water ATM at the Defence Colony Market a month ago on a pilot basis. The vendor got an encouraging response from public. Every day, about 300 glasses of water are sold at the ATM.

“The buyers include visitors as well as people who can’t afford to buy bottled water at Rs 20 such as drivers, guards and staff working at shops in the market. But the idea is not to earn money but provide clean drinking water to public in an eco- friendly manner,” said a SDMC official.

The machine contains 5,000 litres of reverse osmosis (RO) water, arranged by the vendor from his treatment plant. It also has provision for dumping paper glasses. The collected paper glasses are taken for recycling every day, said the official.

Buoyed by the overwhelming response, the civic agency has decided to install water ATMs at all busy markets, bus stops and near parking lots.

“We have already identified 20-25 points in four zones — central, south, Najafgarh and west for installing the ATMs and the tendering process for assigning the job to contractor would start soon. The space for placing the ATMs would be provided by the SDMC only,” said Puneet Goel, commissioner SDMC.

To increase the public response, the agency has also decided to run promotion campaigns. The initiative has been taken on the direction of lieutenant governor (L-G) Anil Baijal who has asked all the municipal bodies to explore installing water ATMs in their respective areas.