A total of 18 villages of Rajnandgaon district plagued by excess Arsenic problem in drinking water would be provided pure and safe water supply through a community tap water supply scheme, officials stated. The Chowki Anicut of the State Water Resources Department built on Shivnath river would be installed with a water purification plant and water would be supplied from the facility through pipelines.
The Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) has approved a sum of Rs20.42 crore for the project. After the commencement of the community tap water supply scheme, the work for operation of Intake Well, Raw Water Pumping Machinery, Water Purification plant, Pure Water Pumping Machinery and Pure Water Gravity Mains would be taken up by PHED.
The water distribution system would be managed by the respective Village Panchayat. This apart, it may be recalled that a total of 26 district-level Government laboratories have been established in Chhattisgarh for testing the purity of drinking water.
During the last three years, 56,388 samples of ground water sources have been examined in these laboratories, officials said. In the areas, where iron, fluoride or other impurities were found in the samples, safe drinking water is being supplied by establishing necessary purification plants.
Under the ‘National Rural Drinking Water Mission’, a target has been set to supply water to all families of at least 50 per cent villages through ‘Nal Jal Yojana’ by 2017. With the set target, 35 per cent families will get water through private tap connection, 20 per cent from public tap and 45 per cent through hand pumps. In the second phase of the Mission, 90 per cent rural families will get water supply through ‘Nal Jal Yojana’ by 2022.
The State Government has already accorded administrative approval of Rs4.74 crore for implementing the Nal-Jal scheme in 12 villages of Rajnandgaon district. The funds have been approved under Chhattisgarh Government’s action plan for current financial year 2014-15 under National Rural Drinking-Water Programme, officials stated.
Orders to this effect have been issued from Chief Engineer, Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) in Naya Raipur . PHED Minister Ramsevak Paikra has issued directives to the officials for completing approved construction works on time. The State Government had recently sanctioned Rs5.43 crores for ‘Nal Jal’ scheme for 13 villages of Dhamtari district.
The Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) has issued orders according to the sanctions, officials said. As per the orders, Rs2.43 crores has been sanctioned for 6 villages of Kurud development block. The 13 villages where the piped water supply schemes will be started include villages of Dhamtari development block, Kurud development block, Magarlod development block, and Nagari development block.
Notably, Chhattisgarh has been ranked first in the country for providing domestic water connection in 2014-15 under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP), officials claimed. This is the State’s second major achievement after bagging first position in the country for installing solar pumps, they claimed.
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.
Each household has to pay a fee of Rs500 for water connection under the programme. However, for people belonging to BPl category, the State Government bears the fee. Overall, more than 97 per cent villages of Chhattisgarh have been electrified so far.
As many as 12 districts of the State have been completely electrified while more than half of the districts are about to be declared completely electrified, officials here stated. About 97.39 per cent villages have been electrified while initiatives have been taken to provide electricity in the remaining 2.61 per cent villages through conventional means and non-conventional sources. Senior officers are monitoring and reviewing the execution and progress of these schemes on daily basis, officials stated.
There are 19567 habitated villages in the State out of which 19,057 have been electrified. The CSPDCl is providing electricity to 18,208 villages through conventional sources and 39 villages through non-conventional sources. Moreover, the Chhattisgarh government has installed as many as 83 ‘Reverse Osmosis’ (RO) plants in the regions facing problems of salinity in water used for drinking purposes.
This apart, there are now 1,252 plants which remove high iron content from drinking water besides 227 plants clearing away high fluoride content from water supplied to the users in various parts of the State, officials stated.