The Village Water & Sanitation Committee (VWSC) in Jharkhand will receive financial assistance from Drinking Water & Sanitation Department (DWSD) to perform simple hand-pump repair jobs in villages. The decision was taken in a review meeting of DWSD on May 30.
“This is the major decision taken by the department in today’s meeting. We have provided them training to perform repair jobs,” said Engineer-in-chief DWSD, Shardendu Narayan.
The DWSD has asked field officers to consult the VWSC to assess the amount of financial assistance needed by a particular VWSC to perform repair works. “We have a formula to derive the amount needed by a VWSC. The amount will be decided once field officers submit their report,” said Narayan.
The VWSCs play an important role in State Water & Sanitation Mission and help in addressing issues of water & sanitation at local level. Incidentally, a VWSC is mandated to have more than 50 percent participant as women members. The DWSD reviewed water and sanitation schemes being run in Dhanbad, Pakur, Jhumri Tilaiya and other parts of Jharkhand.