Two coastal villages in Odisha to get desalinated seawater soon
Berhampur: For the first time in Odisha, two coastal villages in Ganjam district will soon receive desalinated seawater for daily use, including drinking, an official said on Sunday.
The water will be supplied from the seawater desalination plant of the Odisha Sands Complex (OSCOM), a unit of Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL), located in Matikhal, near Chhatrapur in the coastal district.
Ganjam district administration on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding with IREL, a central government PSU, to facilitate this initiative.
Under the agreement, IREL will supply around 1.5 million litres per day (MLD) of desalinated water to Matikhal and Arjeepalli villages, benefiting around 7,000 people, officials added.
Additionally, IREL will provide Rs 4.20 crore to the state government for laying pipelines and constructing other infrastructure needed to distribute water, they added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the seawater desalination plant of IREL on March 5 last year during his visit to Bhubaneswar.
After multiple rounds of testing and stabilising the 4.5 MLD capacity plant, IREL has now decided to supply water to nearby villages, alongside meeting its own industrial needs at OSCOM.
OSCOM chief CVR Murthy said the plant was installed primarily to meet industrial and potable drinking water needs of employees of the organisation and to provide RO water to nearby villages for drinking purposes.
Ganjam district collector Dibya Jyoti Parida assured full support in developing the necessary infrastructure in these two villages to facilitate water supply.
The Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) provided the technology for desalination, while the Atomic Energy Department sponsored the project, which cost around Rs 130 crore, Murthy added.
Meanwhile, Berhampur MP Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy has urged IREL to establish another desalination plant to supply potable drinking water to additional areas, including Chhatrapur town and villages under Chhatrapur and Rangeilunda blocks.
Currently, the Rushikulya River water system, which supplies less than 20 MLD of water, serves OSCOM, Berhampur University, Army Air Defence College, and parts of Berhampur town.
However, during peak summer, water supply from the system is drastically reduced, leading to a severe water crisis in these areas, sources said.
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Trump’s fresh threat to bomb Iran amid reports of deal to end war
Washington (PTI): US President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened Iran with more bombing if it doesn't reopen the Strait of Hormuz, amid a report that the warring sides were nearing an agreement to end the war.
US media outlet Axios reported, quoting US officials and two other sources, that the US and Iran were getting close to a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war and set a framework for more detailed nuclear negotiations.
The US expects Iranian responses on several key points over the next 48 hours, Axios reported, adding that nothing has been agreed yet. This was the closest the parties had been to an agreement since the war began.
"Assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is, perhaps, a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end, and the highly effective Blockade will allow the Hormuz Strait to be OPEN TO ALL, including Iran," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
"If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before," Trump said.
According to Axios, the deal would involve Iran committing to a moratorium on nuclear enrichment, the US agreeing to lift its sanctions and release billions in frozen Iranian funds, and both sides lifting restrictions around transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
It said many of the terms laid out in the memo would be contingent on a final agreement being reached, leaving the possibility of renewed war or an extended limbo in which the hot war has stopped, but nothing is truly resolved.
