Himachal Irrigation and Public Health Minister Vidya Stokes on Wednesday urged the Union Government to increase funding in National Rural Drinking Programme that had reduced substantially over the years.
Stokes, while addressing a national workshop organised by Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, on “Water for All” at New Delhi, said that Himachal Pradesh had taken a lead in providing drinking water to every house in the State where a total of 7,28,873 household connections had been provided till date out of 13,41,940 households which made it 54.31 per cent, against national average of 15.29 per cent.
She said, in Himachal Pradesh all census villages were provided with safe drinking water facility in mid nineties. Thereafter, the focus was shifted to coverage of habitations. Presently out of total 53604 habitations, 33362 habitations are of fully covered category which have been provided with safe drinking water facility in optimum quantity i.e. 70 lpcd up to February, 2017, she added.
The Minister said that remaining 20242 partially covered habitations which were getting water less than 70 lpcd are proposed to be provided with optimum quantity of safe drinking water in a phased manner. For this, the State Government has poised a project to the BRICS Bank.
The State Government is also giving due importance to water quality monitoring. In order to ensure quality in drinking water sources, 42 water quality testing laboratories have been established out of which 14 laboratories are established at district level and 28 laboratories are established at sub-divisional level, she added.