Asssam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday directed the Public Health Engineering Department to develop effective mechanism to ensure availability of safe drinking water in every household of the State in a time bound manner.
Chief minister Sonowal while reviewing implementation of water supply schemes and Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin with officials of the department in the presence of PHED Minister Rihon Doimary at his office conference room at Janata Bhawan also asked the department to promote community involvement for better maintenance and sustainability of the schemes.
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“Safe drinking water is of prime importance for maintaining a healthy life style. This must be taken up as a priority activity. In Assam, there are numerous sources of water. However, due to absence of proper supply network, many areas still have shortage of potable water. The PHE department therefore should device strategy to maximize presence of spot sources of water covering habitations and individual households,” Sonowal said.
He also asked the department to carry out a survey of village and town areas to find out the exact requirement of piped water sources and nature of water sources being presently used for carrying out meaningful intervention.
The officials of PHED department informed that out of 88,049 habitations in the state, 55,142 have been fully and 23,137 have been partially covered. The department has covered the habitations through Piped Water Supply Schemes and installation of spot sources.
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It was further informed that soon steps would be taken to cover all households through piped water supply scheme and various types of other water sources like hand pump and RCC ring well. Similarly, steps would also be taken to upgrade basic infrastructure of the spot water sources at community and individual level, they informed.
While informing about implementation of Neer Nirmal Pariyojana, the officials said four projects have been taken up, which are under different stages of completion. The projects cover Dimoria and Chandrapur in Kamrup (Metro) along with Jorhat and Hailakandi. These projects are expected to be fully functional within March 2020. The officials also briefed the Chief Minister on the progress of implementation of SBM-G in the State.