State sets target to provide tap water to 1 cr households by Mar '22

Kolkata: Taking a major drive following the direction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the state Public Health Engineering department has set a target of ensuring tap water connection to 1 crore households in a mission mode by the end of March 2022.

The Bengal government has taken up the mammoth Jal Swapna project worth Rs 58,000 crore to provide tap water connection to all 2.5 crore rural households in the state. The project was launched in July 2020 and so far around 16 lakh households have been provided with the same under the project since its initiation.

After taking over the charge as new minister of the department, Pulak Roy held a meeting on Monday in which 100 engineers were virtually present from across the state and set a target of reaching the 1 crore mark by the end of March 2022. In a bid to do so, the PHE department has to provide tap water connection to another 79.18 lakh households in the current fiscal. The connection will be provided in rural households in 22 districts. The highest number of connections will be in South 24-Parganas (10.49 lakh households) followed by Murshidabad (8.80 lakh), Nadia (8.85 lakh), North 24-Parganas (8.58 lakh), Bankura (4.68 lakh), Maldah (4.60 lakh), East Midnapore (4.45 lakh), Cooch Behar (4.21 lakh), Hooghly (3.98 lakh), Howrah (3.06 lakh), Jalpaiguri (2.27 lakh), East Burdwan ((2.96 lakh), Birbhum (1.94 lakh), West Burdwan (1.72 lakh), West Midnapore (1.67 lakh), Darjeeling (1.31 lakh), Alipurduar (1.23 lakh), Purulia ((1.18 lakh), North Dinajpur (1.06 lakh), South Dinajpur (97,484), Kalimpong (68,735) and Jhargram (39,458).

The tasks including preparation of DPR and tender process will be completed by August and the work of providing the set of new household connections will begin from September.

Besides discussing of carrying out the survey in villages amidst the Covid situation and bringing in 64628 schools and 84762 anganwadis under Jal Swapna project, the minister has also directed steps in regard to initiate the work in 148 villages under Samsad Adarsha Gram project. Steps would also be taken to ensure NABL accreditation to 19 district and 102 sub-district laboratories. Moreover, 868 village water and sanitation committees will also be set up in the current fiscal. New initiative of providing training to village youths on "pipe water supply" maintenance related work would also be taken.

Another project worth Rs 520.82 crore has been taken up to supply safe drinking water to 5.45 lakh people of 286 villages and 8 census towns at Balagarh and Pandua in Hooghly. The water supply scheme has the capacity to cater the requirement for 7.5 lakh people, which would be the projected population of the area for 2048. Similar project worth Rs 823.55 crore has also been taken up to provide the same to 8.73 lakh residents of 245 villages and 19 census towns at Shyampur I and II, Bagnan I and II and Uluberia I blocks in Howrah.

It needs a mention that the Centre allocated Rs 1614.18 crore and Rs 6998.97 crore to the satte in 2020-21 and 2021-22 fiscals respectively for the same.