It is a joint initiate of Periyar Maniammai University, San Diego State University, California, and Pure-O-tech, California, USA, and it has taken a practical shape with the guidance of the President of India Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam in 2004

This Center has been successful in providing two full-scale water treatment systems with the required infrastructure, one in Nagapattinam right after tsunami in 2004 and the other in Muthuveerakandiyanpatti in 2006. The safety and quality of the water produced by the Pure-O-Tech systems have been evaluated by Anna University and the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board in three different locations.

The team of PMU/SDSU/PTI extend their efforts with the help of TWAD to include two more villages: Thonnkuttahally and Avarampatti, and the campus of PMU. The project team will apply a grass root oriented approach of collaboration/education/training/research among PMU, SDSU, PTI, TWAD and local rural folk especially women.

The project will involve 13 tasks. These tasks will address through evaluation of quality and quantity of accessible water in each location, evaluation of proven water treatment technologies that can resolve identified problems, selection, design and manufacturing of the water treatment systems, providing infrastructure and installation of systems in each location, evaluation of the effectiveness of the system to provide safe drinking water, evaluation of reliability, maintenance, power consumption and safety issues at each site, training of operators and engineering students, education of engineering students and rural women, providing financial model for long-term sustainability and further expansion to other locations, and studying of the societal cost and benefit of the project.

The CCW of Periyar Maniammai University could provide a model that can be easily emulated by villages in other parts of Tamil Nadu and other states of India as well.