World Bank awards another sanitation project to Punjab

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 9

Enthused by the completion of a project worth Rs 1,280 crore six months before schedule, the World Bank has sanctioned another Rs 2,200 crore rural water supply and sanitation project for Punjab. 

Water Supply and Sanitation Minister Surjit Singh Rakhra said that this project would give impetus to the ongoing project of providing 100 per cent potable water and sanitation facilities. 

He was presiding over a training workshop here at Mahatma Gandhi State Public Administration Institute. Rakhra said that the World Bank had commended Punjab for its 'pro-active' approach in accomplishing the project worth Rs 1,280 crores awarded earlier. "Now, the entire rural belt of the state will get water supply and sanitation facilities," he said. 

The minister said that the next aim of the department was to rejuvenate water supply schemes which had come to a halt due to the problem of water-logging. 

He said that through domestic water supply connections, 100 per cent population would be covered under this mission. 

The minister also gave a call to the officers and officials of department to launch a sustained drive to make people aware about the schemes so that they could take full advantage of the schemes. 

He also advocated the need to launch a concerted drive to make the masses aware about the ill-effects of impure water.

Additional Chief Secretary Suresh Kumar said that Punjab had taken a series of steps to provide 100 per cent round-the-clock water supply.