New Delhi: Gujarat faced acute water crisis before 2001. It was after Narendra Modi took over as Chief Minister of the state, he made it his mission to ensure adequate water supply in the most remote areas of Gujarat.
Today, Government of Gujarat, under Bhupendra Patel, is successfully carrying ahead this vision. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ‘Astol Project’ in Gujarat on 10 June 2022. 4.5 lakh people form 174 villages, 1028 hamlets in Valsad will benefit from this project.
Why is the Astol project special for Gujarat?
The topography of the tribal areas Dharampur and Kaprada is such that neither the retention of rainwater is possible nor the storage of groundwater due to rocky land and rapid run-off of rainwater. As a result, only reservoirs are filled during the rainy season. Many springs and streams dry up during summers. This project has made it possible for providing water at a height of 1875 feet.
What is Astol Project?
• Water from Madhuban Dam (water holding gross capacity 567 million cubic metres) will be pumped through pumping stations using lift technique to reach people’s homes
• Under this project, 28 pumping stations with a capacity of 8-Megawatt Volt Ampere (MVA) have been set up which will help supply about 7.5 crore litres of drinking water to 4.50 lakh people on a daily basis
• 81 km of pumping line, 855 km of distribution line and 340 km pipelines were laid to bring water to big and small settlements
• Establishment of two filter plants (each with a capacity of 33 million litres of water per day) for the availability of pure drinking water with a total capacity of 66 million litres of water per day
• To store water in these areas, six high tanks (capacity of 0.47 crore litres), 28 underground tanks (capacity of 7.7 crore litres) and 1,202 tanks (capacity of 44 million litres) at the ground level in villages and habitations have been constructed
Special technology used in laying the pipeline
• Pipes were installed according to the topography, with some areas at a higher elevation and others at low elevation.
• As a result, flow of water in certain areas is steady but very high (40 per kg cm square) in others. The pressure caused due to this is high enough to cause significant damage to pipelines
• As a solution to this problem, a 12 mm thick mild steel pipe is used inside the main pipe to avoid any kind of blast.
