Govt sets target to supply arsenic-free drinking water to districts by 2022

Kolkata: Bengal government has set a target of supplying arsenic-free drinking water to all the affected districts within 2022. Soumen Mahapatra who is in charge of the public Health engineering department on Tuesday announced that his department has been working tirelessly to achieve the target so that people from all the arsenic affected areas can get arsenic-free drinking water before 2022.

"We will provide arsenic-free drinking water to the people in 83 blocks spreading over 7 districts across the state. Around 94 per cent of the total affected areas have already been covered and we have been able to supply purified drinking water to these parts. All the pockets which are yet to get arsenic-free drinking water will be covered by 2022," Mahapatra said.

While addressing a question-answer session in the Assembly on Tuesday, the Mahapatra said that the Centre has drastically cut down its share on various public health engineering projects in the state. Initially, it was said that the Centre would bear 75 per cent of the total cost of various schemes while the state government would provide 25 per cent. The Centre-state ratio soon turned to 50/50 and now the Centre has been reluctant to provide any fund for various state government projects, Mahapatra stressed.

The minister also announced that all the villages in the state would be covered under the piped drinking water supply within 2024. As many as 65,000 villages across the state would soon be covered with piped drinking water. Around 1.98 crore people in the state, particularly in the arsenic affected pockets, have already been brought under the coverage of piped drinking water supply. In various districts, water ATMs have been erected for the supply of purified drinking water.

The minister also pointed out that under the 'Jal Dharo, Jal Bharo' scheme, a brainchild of the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the state government has taken up several initiatives in this regard. The government has also tied up with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to provide purified drinking water to various districts.

According to the minister, the districts which are still affected with arsenic are Malda, some pockets of North and South Dinajpur, Birbhum, North and South 24-Parganas, East Burdwan.