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Clean drinking water remains a pipedream
The State Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Department has covered 250 out of 350 Fluoride-Affected Habitations (FAHs) in last one year under the NTR Sujala Pathakam. However, works in providing clean drinking water to the villages have been moving at a snail’s pace.
​Hyderabad: The State Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Department has covered 250 out of 350 Fluoride-Affected Habitations (FAHs) in last one year under the NTR Sujala Pathakam. However, works in providing clean drinking water to the villages have been moving at a snail’s pace.
According to department sources, a total of 8,093 problematic sources of water structures have been identified in the State for restoration to provide potable drinking water under Rural Water Supply Scheme (RWSS).
“Out of these, so far only 1,672 were completed and 1,384 are in progress. Once the remaining 5,037 structure are completed, the RWSS can announce success in addressing the serious water crisis issue in the villages,” said a senior official from the department.
The problematic water source works are intended to be covered through the Restoration and Augmentation of Schemes programme.
For this, besides asking the District Collectors to speed up the pace of the works, now, the department has asked the government to give sanction to cover the balance of works during the current financial year.
The main focus was to take up and complete balance works to provide potable drinking water to the villages on par and pace of the NTR Sujala Pathakam, he added.
Because, of the total 329 works to cover the FAHs in the State though installing Community Treatment Plants (CTPs) only 79 works are left to be completed during the current financial year.
As part of the works priority repairs, replacement of pumpsets, replacement of filter media in slow and rapid sand filters, replacement of age-old pipelines etc have been taken up with an estimated cost of Rs 141 crore and the district collectors were asked to complete all the repairs of scheme immediately on war-footing.
While Guntur district has completed highest number of sanctioned works under the scheme, the YSR Kadapa district has the highest number of works pending. Similarly, Kurnool, Anantapur, East Godavari and one or two more districts have implemented the scheme to provide clean drinking water, the backward districts of Srikakulam and Vizianagaram fared badly in the initiative.
By: VRC Phaniharan
