The State Public Health Engineering Department has approved Rs 1.79 crores for 11 ‘Nal-Jal’ ( tap water) schemes in Raigarh district. The schemes have been approved in lailunga (2), Pusore (2), Tamnar (3) and one each in Sarangarh, Gharghoda, Raigarh and Dharamjaigarh, officials stated.
PHED Minister Ramsevak Paikra directed the officials to ensure timely completion of these schemes.
Notably, Chhattisgarh was ranked first in the country for providing domestic water connection in 2014-15 under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP), officials stated.
This was the State's second major achievement after bagging first position in the country for installing solar pumps. The Central Government had given a target of 30,000 water connection for the year 2014-15 under the
programme the objective of which is to provide pure drinking water to rural people to protect them from water borne diseases.
The State has provided 88,000 domestic water connections in 10 months of 2014-15 and this is more than 50 percent of total domestic connections provided in the State in past 42 years.
In total, the number of domestic connections provided in rural areas has crossed the figure of 2.50 lakh, officials stated.
The Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) is providing safe and clean drinking water to the residents of 1,145 habitats in the State, officials stated.
Earlier, the people in various districts had been getting drinking water with excess iron, hard water and fluoride content, they stated. Water purification plants have been installed to limit iron and fluoride contents and R.O. (Reverse Osmosis ).
PHED Minister Ramsevak Paikra had initiated the works on nine 'Nal-Jal' Yojanas ( Tap water projects) at a cost of Rs 276.67 crore.
The PHED has installed as many as 251 new solar powered pumps in various districts in rural pockets of Chhattisgarh, officials stated.
The Department also installed a total of 8,950 new hand pumps during 2014-15 under the National Rural Drinking Water Mission in the rural pockets of the State.
There were a total of 10,373 tube wells dug up by the Department in the entire State out of which 8,950 wells were declared successful. During the last financial year, 1,034 new hand pumps were established in rural schools and 1,881 in Anganwadis.
As many as 141 new tube wells were dug in the urban pockets of the State out of which 126 were declared successful during the last financial year.