By 2021 March, close to 1.29 lakh habitations across uncovered village panchayats would have drinking water tap connections, said Collector M. Vijayalakshmi here on Wednesday.
After conducting an inspection at hamlets in and around Pallapatti in the district, she told reporters that under the Union government’s Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) project, the State government had proposed to provide tap connections to habitations in all village panchayats across the State.
The Central government’s objective of the ambitious JJM project was to ensure all habitations have tap connections by 2024.
Towards achieving this goal, the Collector said that they have identified 306 village panchayats and funds were earmarked which would be spent through the District Rural Development Agency. The officers from the rural and other departments were also roped in for execution of the project, she added.
K. Kavitha, Project Director, DRDA, said that for the first phase they had ₹ 38.39 crore. Out of the 1.29 lakh tap connections taken up for execution now, 53,383 dwellings would be covered under the JJM and the rest of the tap connections would get funds from various other Central funds.
The Rural Development department officials said that they have identified all the uncovered habitations falling under the village panchayats and panchayat unions and hoped to execute them by 2024.
When asked about the source of water for distribution to these hamlets, the officials said that treated water would be sourced from waterbodies and tanks which would be stored in overhead tanks for supply, a TWAD Board engineer said and added that the kudimaramathu projects in the district should facilitate not only storage of water, but also help recharge the groundwater levels.