The state government has selected 16 villages in East Champaran to provide pure drinking water from towers using solar energy.

Residents can avail of pure drinking water only through water posts to be set up at different locations in the villages.

The government has approved Rs 2.56 crore to start the welfare scheme in the district. Around 16 towers would be built in each village in the first phase of the project. “There is a provision to spend Rs 16 lakh for completing each solar energy-operated water pump,” said the executive engineer of public health and engineering department, Ram Chandra Pandey.

Explaining the mechanism behind the water towers, Pandey said the solar energy-operated pumps would fetch water from underground and send it to the towers. Water would then be supplied from the towers. The towers would ensure water supply to villagers within a radius of 1.5km of the tower.

He added that Dalit- and Mahadalit-dominated villages would be given priority while selecting the sites for setting up the pumps. The work for constructing the solar water towers has been started in some villages.