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Reliance comes to Jamnagar's aid, begins water-supply to drought-hit city

In an effort to ease the worsening water situation in Jamnagar, Reliance Petroleum Limited, or RPL, today started supplying 1.6 million gallons of water to the drought-ridden city.

The water is being drawn from the company's desalination plant that has a capacity of over 12 million gallons of water per day.

Responding to the need of the hour, RPL has decided to cut down on its water consumption so that it can be diverted to the people of Jamnagar.

The water will reach people through the company's 11-km long pipeline, which will reach Sasol dam reservoir and then pumped to Jamnagar city 20 kms away through the existing pipeline, said an RPL media statement.

At a function held in Jamnagar, about 300 kms from Ahmedabad, Gujarat Minister for Finance and Revenue Vajubhai Vala, expressed his gratitude to Dhirubhai Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, who has fulfilled his promise to the 500,000 people of the city.

The release said, RPL's desalination plant is equipped with four state-of-the-art units supplied by IDE Technologies of Israel, regarded as a pioneer in sea water desalination.

Each unit has a capacity of producing 3.2 million gallon tonnes of water. Desalinated water is generated by multiple effect distillation, MED. It converts sea water into fresh potable water by separating it of its heavy minerals.

Separated from all impurities, it is water in its purest form.

The state government had requested for one million gallons of water per day for Jamnagar, but recognising the gravity of the situation, Reliance volunteered to supply 1.6 million gallons of water per day.

The RPL already provides water through tankers to nearby villages. It has also arranged for 3 million kgs of fodder for the cattle in the area. It also nine cattle sheds in six villages around the project.

The average rainfall in Jamnagar is normally 20 inches. But the last 42 monsoons have seen less than 15 inches of rain. The region, thus, has been suffering for perennial water shortage for many years now.

UNI

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