Bhubaneswar: A state-level Rural Drinking Water Supply and maintenance workshop and review meeting of all 35 RWSS Divisions was conducted here under the Chairmanship of Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department’s Principal Secretary Sushil Kumar Lohani.
The Director of Drinking Water & Sanitation, Engineer–in–Chief, RWSS, Chief Engineers, and Additional Chief Engineers, also attended the meeting.
The State has come up with SOPs on preparedness, mitigation and maintenance of hand pump tube wells and Rural Piped Water Supply Projects before approaching Summer, 2024 and districts were sensitised that the below instructions should be adhered to scrupulously to ensure the availability of drinking water in each and every habitation of the State without fail.
- A hundred per cent check of tube wells and PWSs shall be taken up on priority as a part of preventive maintenance.
- The routine preventive maintenance shall be done in a mission mode and it should be ensured that the Blocks procure adequate spare parts, paints, riser pipes etc. by utilizing the Finance Commission Grants taking into consideration the indents of the Gram Panchayat on the recommendation of JE/AE, RWSS.
- Water supply with a focus on the provision of Tap water supply to all Primary Schools / Anganwadi Centers / Rural haats shall be ensured.
- Regular review and monitoring of the drinking water situation shall be done by convening weekly review meetings at the Block level each Saturday.
The State has now covered 66% of Rural Households with tap Water Connections as reported in the IMIS portal. Around 9,671 Villages have been saturated with 100% Tap connection.
The State has prepared its saturation Plan for 47,274 villages to be covered with Functional Household Tap connections. 31854(65%) of the villages are covered with mega piped Water Supply, 15420 (35%) are covered with Small and Solar. Apart from these, there are 4,79,664 tube wells that are also made available in all the villages.
207 Mega piped water supply projects worth Rs. 35,920 Crs. Out of which 2 are under tendering, 189 mega Projects are under implementation and 16 Megaprojects have been completed it is aspired to complete around 20 Megaprojects by March 2024.
The department has also taken up 14,256 single village projects worth 18,000 Crores with an aim to provide Functional household Tap connections.
There are 77 Water testing Labs in the state. Water samples from 2.28 lakh sources and delivery points are tested in laboratories nationwide every year.
NABL accreditation has been done for 23 Laboratories, applied for 3 and 7 in the pipeline for submission. Efforts are being undertaken to get NABL accreditation for all district laboratories during the FY 2023-24.
The pace of progress of coverage of villages with functional household tap connections was reviewed in detail and Divisions were given instructions to expedite the implementation in the field.
A detailed discussion was made on all the aspects of implementation and authorities were instructed to resolve all issues on time and focus on the timely completion of the projects.
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