Himachal Chief Secretary VC Pharka on Saturday directed the Irrigation and Public Health Department to clean water sources of the water supply schemes including catchment areas of streams/nallahs during the swachch campaign (cleanliness drive) being launched between May 2 to 5 in the State.
The exercise should be conducted in coordination with district administration along-with the participation of PRIs, departmental staff and general public, directed Pharka while reviewing the drought-like situation during the summer season with all zonal chief engineers of the department through video conference.
He said that all storage tanks should be cleaned with date of cleaning indicated on it and public should be made aware of the importance of water and its use after treatment to avoid occurrence of diseases. He directed to put in order all repairable hand pumps immediately and those which could not be repaired should be plugged and record of these along-with reasons should be maintained.
The Chief Secretary also directed to ensure that no private water connection was given from rising mains and gravity mains. If there are any such connections, these should be disconnected immediately. He stressed on equitable distribution of water to entire public. During the meeting, it was apprised by the Chief Engineers that out of total 9,393 Water Supply Schemes in the State, currently only 119 schemes are partially affected due to reduction in discharge of source.
