Rs 353 crore plan to boost drinking water schemes in Himachal

Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 1

The state government has prepared a special plan to construct buffer storage to strengthen drinking water schemes. As a pilot project the scheme would be initially implemented in Mandi and Kullu districts and later replicated in other districts.

Under the scheme, gravity drinking water would be accumulated for about three months and utilized at the time of need. Electricity would not be used for this process. To implement this project at ground level, State Level Scheme Sanctioning Committee (SLSSC) has sanctioned Rs 353.57 crore. Under the pilot project buffer storage would be constructed for strengthening 147 schemes in nine blocks of Mandi district and 110 schemes in five blocks of Kullu district, a spokesperson of the state government said here today.

The Central government has provided a total of Rs 2,990.10 crore till March 2022 under Jal Jeevan Mission and 8.42 Lakhs houses have been provided with tapped water whereas since 72 years of independence only about 7.63 lakhs houses have been provided with taps. A total of 17.28 lakhs houses or families have been provided the taps in the state.

To ensure quality drinking water, Jal Shakti Department has established 60 laboratories in the state and 14 laboratories have been set up at district level and 36 at sub division level have been recognized by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). About 83 per cent laboratories of the state have been recognized by the NABL, which is the highest at national level.

As many as five women from each village are being identified and provided with training to test drinking water with field test kit. Till date, training has been provided to 40,090 women and in last two years, water quality testing training has been provided to 61901 persons in the state. In the present financial year, a target to test 3,00,606 water samples through laboratories and 1,42,734 water samples through field test kits have been set.

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