Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday laid the foundation stones of three Surface Water Supply Schemes, in addition to a domestic sewage treatment plant, worth a total of Rs 197.69 crores, for rural areas of Amritsar district.
Terming Punjab’s water situation as precarious, the Chief Minister underlined the state’s responsibility to save water for the coming generations. “When the SYL (Sutlej Yamuna Link) canal problem started, Punjab had 17 MAF water, which has depleted to 13 MAF in 30 years,” he pointed out, adding that the greenhouse effect had reduced the glacier cover, causing even groundwater levels to drop.
The state currently has 14 lakh tubewells against the 50,000 which were estimated to be required after the construction of the Bhakra canal, he noted.
The Chief Minister said that the Government would take the help of all financial organisations to ensure that canal or river water is supplied to the people for drinking purposes.
Capt Amarinder also announced upgradation of the sub-Tehsil of Lopoke and a new degree college for Chogwan.
Earlier, launching a canal-based surface water supply projects to the tune of Rs 154.15 crores, the Chief Minister said that the schemes, with tapping point at Chiwindan Kalan, in block Chogawan on the Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC), would help mitigate the problem of groundwater for 1.5 lakh people spread over 112 villages in four blocks in the region.
The state-of-the-art project would be executed with financial assistance from the World Bank on a design, build, operate and transfer (DBOT) basis, for which the tenders have already been floated.
The Chief Minister also laid the foundation stone of an Arsenic Removal Project for 102 villages of Amritsar district, involving a cost of Rs 21.97 crore, which have been arranged from NITI Aayog after the successful demonstration of a pilot project undertaken by the State Government in three villages, based on nano-material technology developed by IIT Chennai.
Of these 102 villages, 63 are of Amritsar district, of which 60 are being commissioned today and the remaining would be commissioned within a month.
With an aim to counter high prevalence of contaminates like iron and other heavy metals in groundwater, Capt Amarinder also launched an ultra-modern Water Testing Laboratory at Amritsar at a cost of Rs six crore. “The work for this project has already been awarded and it would be functional by October 2019,” he said.
“The high-tech lab, being set up with technical assistance from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, would cater to the districts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Kapurthala, Gurdaspur and Pathankot. This would be the second modern laboratory in the state, after SAS Nagar Mohali, to be accredited by the National Board for Accreditation (NABL),” he added.
Reiterating the state government's commitment to ensure safe drinking water for all, the Chief Minister informed that the Water Supply and Sanitation department has already proposed three more surface water projects to the Centre, which would cover 259 villages benefitting 2.48 lakh residents with a cost of Rs 385 crore.
The Department would also revitalize 127 new or existing water supply schemes to augment water supply with an investment of Rs 10.87 crore with assistance from World Bank or NABARD benefitting 1.81 lakh residents.
PUNJAB TO CHARGE Rs 140 MONTHLY FOR WATER
The state Water Supply and Sanitation Minister Razia Sultana said that drinking water would be supplied to the people at a nominal charge of Rs 140 a month, that had been levied “to ensure that they realise the importance of conserving water”.
“Unfortunately, people usually have a tendency to waste things that they get free of cost, necessitating the imposition of the nominal charge,” she added.