Guwahati, April 19: The city has just acquired two reasons to be more confident about its glass of water. The state public health engineering minister, Gautam Roy, today inaugurated a laboratory of the department of public health engineering to test water-carrying pipes and a few mobile water treatment plants. The water pipe testing laboratory, which has been set up in the city’s Betkuchi area for Rs 42.08 lakh, will enable the state public health engineering department to test the quality of water-carrying pipes in the city and different parts of the state. Earlier, the tests were conducted by the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology. The mobile water treatment plants will be stationed in different flood-affected areas of the state where they will provide filtered drinking water to people. Each of the water treatment plants has been set up on a vehicle. Chief engineer of the department, Dilip Kumar Das, said the cost of one water treatment plant is Rs 90 lakh and is capable of filtering 2,000 litres of water per hour. “In the laboratory, we will be able to test the quality of water-carrying pipes made of polyvinyl chloride. This will help us to conduct pipe testing quickly,” Das said. “On the other hand, during floods, people do not get clean drinking water because of various kinds of contamination. The plant will purify water from easily available water sources like ponds and river,” Das said. The department now has five mobile water treatment plants, which will be stationed in different flood-affected areas. “We are starting the project with five water treatment plants. Let us use them and examine their sustainability. If they work efficiently, we will go for more,” Das said. Roy praised the engineers of the department and said the two projects would greatly benefit the people. “I must thank the engineers of the department to complete the two projects successfully,” he said.