Bhubaneswar: In a major step towards solving drinking water scarcity in coastal Odisha, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday inaugurated the state’s first seawater desalination plant at Matikhal near Chhatrapur in Ganjam district.
The ₹135-crore project, developed by Odisha Sands Complex (OSCOM), a unit of Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL), will produce 4.5 million litres of potable water daily using reverse osmosis (RO) technology. Of this, 1.5 MLD will cater to OSCOM’s needs, another 1.5 MLD will be supplied to two nearby villages, and the remaining 1.5 MLD will be reserved for emergencies.
Pradhan said the facility would permanently end the hardships caused by high salinity in local groundwater. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) provided the technology, while the Department of Atomic Energy funded the project. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had formally unveiled the plant in March last year from Bhubaneswar.
According to OSCOM chief C.V.R. Murthy, the district administration has built overhead tanks and laid pipelines to ensure household-level supply. Berhampur MP Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy urged IREL to set up a second plant to serve more areas, including Chhatrapur town, where summer shortages from the Rushikulya River are common.
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