Over Rs 1,650 cr for improvement of drinking water supply facilities

Haryana  Water Supply and Sewerage Board, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal on Friday approved over Rs 1,650 crore for improvement of drinking water supply facilities, sewerage system in rural and urban areas and storm water drainage facilities in the urban areas of the stat.

Funds have also been approved in the meeting for the 2444 ongoing schemes and 1359 new schemes.

Urban Local Bodies Minister, Kavita Jain and Minister of State for  Public Health Engineering, Banwari Lal were also present in the meeting.

It was informed in the meeting that a target has been set for the improvement of drinking water supply facilities in 272 habitations or rural areas and in the urban areas, construction and commissioning of 15 sewage treatment plants and improvement of water supply, sewerage and storm water drainage system in various towns of the state during the year 2018-19.

The Chief Minister directed the Public Health Engineering Department to start a pilot project in Panipat for the treatment of contaminated water.

Once successful, the model would be replicated in other parts of the state, he said, adding that efforts should be made to ensure that not even a single drop of contaminated water fall into river Yamuna.

He asked the department to implement a technology through which water could be utilised at the same place where it would be treated and first priority should be given to irrigation.

While reviewing the Maha Gram Yojana, the Chief Minister directed the Public Health Engineering Department to expedite the process of making available water for drinking as well as irrigation purposed in the 20 villages taken over by the Department in the first phase.

Solar and micro irrigation projects are also to be implemented in these villages, he said.

Manohar Lal asked the senior officers of the department to personally visit these villages and fix a timeline for the completion of work so that the target to cover 116 villages under the scheme this year could be achieved.

It was informed in the meeting that out of 20 villages, work in six villages have already been allotted and started whereas estimates are being prepared for the remaining 11 villages.

For 21 towns located alongwith the catchment area of river Ghaggar in Haryana, 19 STPs have already been set up whereas the process is underway for the setting up of two STPs in Ambala Sadar and Thanesar towns.

Apart from this, three projects have been prepared with the assistance of Command Area Development Authority (CADA), Haryana for the utilization of waste water for irrigation. The Chief Minister was apprized that initially the project has been implemented in three towns namely Shahbad, Ladwa and Pehowa. On the success of these projects, the same would be replicated in other towns also.

 It was also informed that the Public Health Engineering Department on its own has started the geo mapping of its assets, habitations and sewerage network. By the end of this year, the entire geo mapping would be completed and thereafter all the estimates of projects would be submitted alongwith the geo mapping.

The Department has also started five training programmes for sewer men in the state. Under this programme, the sewer men are provided one day training to sensitize them and once the training is completed, Haryana would be the first state to have conducted this type of training.     

 Earlier, various projets were approved in the meeting. These included 475 new tube wells, 22 independent canal based water works.

Apart from this, 45 boosting stations in rural areas  and 126 renovation, repair of existing water works in rural areas, 546 pipelines works in rural areas and 50 others including augmentation of existing water works, independent feeders, sustainability and raw water arrangement in rural areas were also approved in the meeting.