The state government has taken up a pilot project to supply sufficient quantity of safe drinking water for the residents of Basirhat in North 24 Parganas.
With its success, the same will be implemented in other parts of the district as well as the state where arsenic-free water has to be supplied.
The Public Health Engineering (PHE) department has taken up the project to supply safe drinking water to the residents of Basirhat and the preliminary estimation to bring it up is Rs 400 crore.
According to a senior state government official, water will be pumped in from Ichamoti river. It will be passing through layers of purification process and a unique mechanism will be adopted to ensure supply safe drinking water.
As far as the initial planning goes, engineers have recommended setting up of the project at Taki. Senior officials of the PHE department comprising engineers have already visited the spot where the project will come up.
The work of preparing the detailed project report (DPR) has been initiated.
Adequate supply of safe drinking water will be ensured with completion of the project and lakhs of people will be benefitted. It had been a long-standing demand of the people of the area to ensure supply of safe drinking water. The state government has already identified areas in different districts which are arsenic prone.
It may be recalled that during the last session in the state Assembly the issue of supply of safe drinking water at arsenic prone areas had come up. The state government had initiated taking necessary steps to solve the problem.
There are also areas like the Sunderbans where salty water is a problem. So the state government is also chalking out necessary plans to supply adequate supply of safe drinking water to the people of the Sunderbans. If the pilot project is a success, then the same mechanism may be adopted to give respite to the residents of other such areas including the Sunderbans.