Collector Thakur Ram Singh on Sunday reached Mana Basti and inspected RO Water Treatment Plant established in Panchayat Bhawan. The residents of Mana Basti are getting drinking water free of cost from the RO plant, officials informed. The Collector inquired about functioning of the plant. Plant operator informed him that water coming from water tank is purified through three water filters and is stored in different water tanks of 500 litres each capacity. The tanks are regularly inspected by Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) officials to ensure quality water supply.
The Panchayat provides free drinking water from 7 am to 8 am from the RO plant which was established about three months back at a cost of Rs3 lakh. The Collector also interacted with residents and got first hand information about functioning of plant. He was informed that Mana Basti has four ponds. The Collector asked the residents to use only one pond for public utility as this would minimise the chance of water borne diseases.
Singh also inquired about Pisciculture and fish sale. Incidentally, 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.
Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) officials informed that the Government has established 26 district-level laboratories in the State for checking fluoride content in ground water sources. During the last three years, as many as 56,388 samples collected from ground water sources across the state have been examined in the aforesaid 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. In May last year, the State Government has established a total of 105 ‘Flouride Removal Plants’ in settlements of 44 villages in Bastar division.
In September this year, Chief Minister Raman Singh 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 that under ‘Nal-Jal’ scheme nearly 1.74 lakh people residing in several villages of Bemetara, Navagarh and Saja block will be benefitted.
Under the scheme, 751 km of pipelines and 139 overhead tanks will be facilitated to ensure the supply of safe drinking water in villages. This apart, many parts of Chhttisgarh are troubled with drinking water shortages on account of the continuously falling ground water level. The problem escalates in summer as rivers, rivulets, ponds and even hand pumps go dry in many areas. The drinking water problem increases day after day because of its non-conservation during the monsoons through rain water harvesting methods, officials stated.
Keeping in mind all these problems, the State Government decided to adopt rainwater harvesting system and implemented rules for installing this system in houses not only in urban areas but in other areas also, so that the ground water level, which is rapidly declining every year could be increased to some extent. The Government had decided that besides official buildings, private houses would also be constructed with rainwater harvesting system. Such order has been issued to urban areas also.