State mulling law to curb misuse of drinking water

Kolkata: State Public Health Engineering (PHE) minister Pulak Roy on Wednesday said that his department will soon bring a law to curb the practice of using drinking water supplied to rural households under the Jal Jeevan mission project for other purposes.

“Our aim is to supply potable water to every single rural household in the state by 2025 as directed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. We want to ensure that drinking water is strictly used for drinking purposes. Hence, we are coming up with legislation to curb the practice of using drinking water for other purposes. We are working on formulation of a Bill in this regard which we hope to table in the next assembly session,” Roy said at the state assembly.

Sources said, the department in the recent past received a good number of complaints of using the water supplied to households under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in hotels and restaurants, industrial units, factories etc. As per estimates by the PHE department, the JJM project in Bengal will cover over 1.73 crore households.

“We have already reached out to over 90 lakh households which is 51 per cent of the populace covered. Bengal is presently in third position in terms of water connections to households and at the first position in this ongoing financial year,” added Roy.

He added that the state and the Centre’s share in the project is 50:50. However, the state has to incur extra cost for purchasing land for the project and the maintenance cost which effectively results in the state spending 75 per cent of the total project cost. The state has spent an additional Rs 4160 crore only for operation and maintenance till date.

Nadia leads in water connection with 84 percent of households being already covered under this project that kicked off from July 2020. Responding to a query from Sankar Ghosh, BJP legislator from Siliguri, the minister said that five water projects are being implemented in Dabgram and its adjacent areas at an expenditure of Rs 52.35 crores. “31137 families will be benefited through this water supply and February 2025 is the target for completion,” the minister said.