Sanitation works in tsunami-hit areas to be ready

Tiruchirapalli, Feb 7: The Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD) will complete all the 16 packages of sanitation schemes sanctioned for 73 permanent habitations of the tsunami-affected people in the State by March 2009.

Mr N Rajakumar, Joint Chief Engineer, Tsunami Cell, TWAD, told newspersons here yesterday that the schemes, to be executed at a cost of Rs 29.37 crore with World Bank assistance, would be implemented in five municipalities and 18 town panchayats in Nagapattinam, Kanniyakumari, Cuddalore, Villupuram, Tuticorin and Kancheepuram districts. About 56,870 tsunami-affected people would benefit from the schemes, taken up under the Emergency Tsunami Reconstruction Project, he added.

The work on four packages, being executed by the TWAD, had started in Kancheepuram, Villupuram, Cuddalore and Tuticorin districts and tenders have been floated in this connection. The sanitation systems would be handed over to the local bodies and local communities would be put in charge of its operation and maintenance.

Mr Rajakumar explained that the sanitation systems would be set up with three different technologies - fluidised bed biological reactor, single pass intermittent sand filter and decentralised waste water treatment system. While the TWAD would execute 11 packages, the others would be implemented through the Centre for DEWATS Dissemination (CDD), a Bangalore-based consultant, he said.

He pointed out that 30 of the 41 water supply schemes for the tsunami-hit areas in 11 districts under the Tsunami Emergency Assistance Project at a cost of Rs 82.18 crore, with assistance from the Asian Development Bank, have been completed and the remaining work would be completed by October.

UNI