The Dharwad Zilla Panchayat has embarked on a plan to augment supply of drinking water per day per person in rural areas, zilla panchayat Chief Executive Officer B.C. Satish has said.
Speaking at Meet-the-Press programme organised by the Dharwad Journalists Guild here on Thursday, Mr. Satish said that this new project, which is a national mission, would ensure supply of 120 litres of drinking water per day per person against the existing quantity of 55 litres per day per person. This project would be completed this year, he added.
As per data, last year only nine villages out of the 388 habitations received 13.20 litres of water per day per person, while 142 villages received 27 litres of water per day per person. This year, under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) and task force programme, a permanent drinking water scheme will be implemented in these villages so that they get 120 litres per person per day. In the rural areas, the demand is more for supplying surface water than from borewells and hence, the scheme will focus on refilling local tanks so that people can use them for their daily activities, he said.
Under the Jaladhara water scheme, the zilla panchayat has submitted a proposal of ₹ 1,043 crore to the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department. However, Dharwad missed this scheme as higher officials suggested certain modifications in the proposal stating that the investment per person is high.
The zilla panchayat would send a fresh proposal with necessary modifications and see that Dharwad district bags this project next year, he added.
To ease water woes in the villages, new borewells have been drilled and the existing ones have been deepened and flushed. The underground water table has depleted and new borewells are being sunk to 400 ft to get three-inch water. To recharge groundwater table, the zilla panchayat would construct 170 check dams, each at a cost of ₹ 4.12 lakh. Besides, a mega drive to plant one lakh saplings will be launched on the World Environment Day falling on June 5. A total of nine lakh saplings would be planted in the district in later stages, he said.
To a query on supplying clean drinking water, Mr. Satish said that of the 458 pure drinking water units are installed in the district, 410 are working efficiently. People are getting 10 litres of pure drinking water at a cost of ₹ 1. Maintenance of these units has been tendered to two private firms — Waterlife and Membrane Filters.
However, Membrane Filters has failed to maintain these units and hence, its security deposit has been forfeited and the State government has been urged to blacklist this company. Increasing water literacy is the main challenge before the authorities and awareness programmes are planned in association with the Watershed Department, minor irrigation and also NGOs, Mr. Satish said.