‘Chargeable Water ATM’ comes to village just before elections

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Kendrapara: Parinuapada is a village in the Rajkanika Block of the Kendrapara Parliamentary Constituency and Aul Assembly Constituency. The villagers here have now found a reason to cheer as it recently got equipped with a ‘Water ATM” which dispenses purified water to the villagers.
The water vending machine which started working around two months ago in this village, just before the elections were to start, is however asking the villagers to pay for the services to an extent of Rs 300 per household per month if it uses 20 litres of water every day.
Rajbihari Parida, a villager who extends his helping hand to the people who want to use the machine said, “It was installed two months back in our village. This gives filter water and the villager who wants to use it needs to pay
Rs 10 for 20 litres of water. Many are paying and using it as it is safer and better than what we used to get from tube-wells.”
Other villagers told this correspondent that the village still reels under the lack of safe drinking water. “Most of us bathe in the pond, wash our utensils there and also wash out clothes there. Unlike tube-wells, which sometimes go defunct, ponds help us although it is not safe but we use it often,” said Debendra Kumar Nayak.
The water ATM has a photograph of BJD leader Pratap Keshari Deb on one side. Deb is also the BJD’s MLA candidate from Aul segment. The other side of the ATM bears logos of the Union government flagship programmes like ‘Make in India’, ‘Swacchh Bharat’ and others. It has been provided with a water tank and RO Purifier to dispense filtered water to the villagers.
Many villagers subtly agreed that the unit was installed keeping in mind the ongoing elections to woo the electorate. BJD is also leaving no stone unturned to paste their party posters onto the Water ATM to take credit for the facility given to the village.
The water from the Water ATM currently is now used by some of the villagers only for drinking purpose while many still are used to rely on other unsafe sources of water for other household chores and even for drinking by many who are reluctant to pay for water in this village.