With summer season about to bring in scores of water shortage woes, the Chhattisgarh Government had been rapidly approving funds for a host of tap water projects in villages across its districts. The Government has now approved Rs2.99 crore to ensure tap water connections in nine villages of Balod district under the Nal-Jal scheme.
The villages to be covered under this scheme are in Gunderdehi and Dondi blocks, officials stated. Significantly, with the onset of summer season, the State Government apart from expediting the process of providing tap water connections in villages of many district in the State has reserved around 10 lakh litres of diesel and petrol in the petrol pumps of Bastar division to maintain operation of drinking water pumps during summer months, officials stated.
This apart, about 35 Rig machines are stationed along with officers in Bastar region. This is the first time so many machines have been sent to the Bastar region. The State Government also has ordered the district administration of the entire State to provide drinking water to all the citizens in public places keeping in view the summer season ahead. The Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) officers had been ordered to repair all the hand pumps in urban and rural areas and ‘Nal-Jal’ scheme to be implemented strictly. The officers have been instructed to get cleaned all the drinking water tanks.
District collectors have been ordered to convene a meeting of the local bodies’ representatives and Public Health Engineering Department officers and take stock of the situation on drinking water arrangements for summer season. In December last year, while seriously considering the problem of water salinity in 98 villages of Bemetara district, Chief Minister Raman Singh had approved two projects worth Rs101.47 crores for supplying safe water in the villages.
In September this year, the Chief Minister had approved Rs190 crore under the State Government’s ‘Nal-Jal Scheme’ for eliminating salinity in water supply being made to nearly 152 villages of Bemetara district from Shivnath River. The PHED officials informed in a meeting chaired by the Chief Minister that the ‘Nal-Jal’ scheme is the biggest in the country formulated to solve the problem of salinity in water supply made to the villages.
Moreover, the State Government’s Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) have established as many as 227 ‘fluoride prevention plants’ to ensure supply of safe drinking water in fluoride-affected regions of Chhattisgarh. PHED officials informed here that the Government has established 26 district-level laboratories in the State for checking fluoride content in ground water sources.
In three years, as many as 56,388 samples collected from groundwater resources across the State have been examined in these laboratories. Out of these, 328 samples were found high in fluoride content. The Government spent more than Rs5.62 crore during 2012-13 for implementation of various schemes formulated for ensuring safe drinking water to the people living in fluoride affected areas.