The Government’s plan to make available drinking water through solar energy based dual pumps in remote areas in various States is moving at a snail’s pace. The scheme was to mainly cover Naxal-dominated areas, tribal areas and remote areas of different States.
The Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation started the scheme for installation of solar pumps in 88 identified left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected districts of ten States.
These were Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
For this, Rs221.30 crore was allocated from National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) under the Finance Ministry with a target of 11,068 such schemes.
The scheme has been co-funded with the assistance of NCEF which contributed 40 per cent of the fund while the balance i.e. 60 per cent have been shared equally between National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) central and State shares.
However, so far as on July 26, 2016, just 8,967 solar power pumps have been installed against the target 11,068.
The Ministry’s similar scheme launched for installation of such pumps across the country with focus on tribal, remote and thinly populated habitations has not shown impressive results.
The scheme has been taken up with the collaboration of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).
For this, 17 States have been given a target of 15,400. However, as per the latest data available from the Ministry, just 5,004 units have been installed against the target 15,400. Many States like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Haryana and Karnataka, not a single solar pump has been installed.
In rural areas particularly in some seasons when there is frequent power failure and people face lot of hardship for collecting potable drinking water, solar energy based dual pump drinking water scheme is considered the most suitable option. In this scheme a solar energy based s pump is installed in the bore well as well as a hand pump is fitted. So when there is no solar power available during rainy days people can collect water from hand pumps.