At a time when many villages in Perambalur district are facing an acute shortage of protected water, a water vending machine established at Kunnam has come as a model to providing drinking water to the residents at village level.

The village, situated on Perambalur — Ariyalur highway, had not been covered with supply of protected drinking water until recently. The people had to depend upon the erratic supply of unprotected water by the village panchayat. To solve the issue, a water vending machine was installed at the village, which has a population of 6,500 people, about a few months ago.

It has been connected with a nearby well. The machine takes in raw water from the well and processes it through multiple stages under Reverse Osmosis membrane technology.

The machine, which was declared open by S.S. Sivasankar, Kunnam MLA, when he was the Transport Minister in the previous DMK government, came in handy in meeting the drinking water requirement of the villagers.

It dispenses 25 litres of water upon insertion of a ₹5 coin. “The water vending machine serves the residents of the village to an extent. The people use the water judiciously as they pay ₹5 for every 25 litres of water,” says N. Anbudasan, a village resident.

Though the supply of protected drinking water by establishing a combined drinking water scheme was the permanent solution, Mr. Anbudasan said, a water vending machine could be an additional option to supply protected water by tapping local water resources. This model should be established at all villages, he added.