Subrata inaugurates two drinking water supply schemes

State Public Health Engineering and Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee inaugurated two piped water supply schemes in Purulia and West Midnapore districts on Monday.

Under this scheme, water will be supplied to over 40,000 people at 57 rural areas under Manbazar II gram panchayat. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 45.34 crore. 

Residents in the area will get water supply from Mukutmanipur reservoir. The water will be purified and then stored in five overhead reservoirs, from where it will be supplied to the beneficiaries.

A senior official of Public Health Engineering department said the daily requirement would be around 4,282 kilolitres, whereas the capacity of water treatment plant is 4,507 kilolitres. 

It may be recalled that after coming to power in 2011, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had asked the officials of the Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Department and Panchayat and Rural Development to use every water source to provide drinking water to the people. Accordingly, the civic bodies along the river Hooghly have set up lifting stations and purified drinking water is being supplied to the people. Similarly, the residents from New Town, Rajarhat will get drinking water from the end of January.

Mukherjee inaugurated another  water supply scheme in West Midnapore where eight tube wells would  be set up on the bank of Kansabati river. The estimated cost of the project would be around Rs 2147.08 lakh. Water will be stored in the overhead tanks and then supplied to individual household through pipes.   

It may be mentioned that Purulia and West Midnapore fall under the drought hit districts where drinking water has been a major problem during summer. Poor villagers have to walk down several kilometres to fetch a bucket of water. The schemes will solve a long-standing demand of local residents.