Heavy metal,uranium tests mandatory for tubewells now

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday,P S Aujla,Secretary,Water Supply and Sanitation,said a survey carried out by the World Bank found that people in the villages were ready to pay user charges provided they got good quality and quantity of water. “It has been observed that the drinking water scheme in villages are doing well if it is run by the panchayats. Hence, we encourage more panchayats to run the schemes,” he said.

The Rs 1280.30-crore World Bank Assisted Punjab Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project has picked up pace with more panchyats becoming active partners in its execution. Aujla said thought the project was approved in March 2007,the implementation picked up only in April 2008. “Till December 2010,the department has been able to make significant progress. It has received demands from 3,319 panchyats and 90-100 per cent beneficiary share has been received from 2,698 panchyats. Water supply has been commissioned in 1,843 villages,whereas work is under progress in 526. Since water connections have been metered in some of the villages,the revenue of the department has gone up by 30 per cent,” he said.

Aujla said the department had set a target of providing safe and portable water to 4,185 habitations,including 739 non-covered,2,422 partially-covered and 1,024 other habitations,by December 31,2013.

The project will also provide sewerage scheme to 100 villages. To motivate the people,he said,86 examples of role model villages had already been established where the water supply scheme had been successfully commissioned and being being run,operated and maintained by village panchyats. Aujla said the state was aiming to provide 24×7 water supply to villages. When asked about the traces of uranium in the supply water,Aujla said 400 samples had been sent to BARC,Mumbai,for tests.

He said while the reports of 100 samples had been received by the department,18 of them from Moga and Kotakpura regions showed higher than acceptable quantity of uranium. He said the Centre had been told about these results and requested to conduct a detailed scientific study to identify the source of uranium.

About the installation of water purifiers working on reverse osmosis technology in the Malwa region,Aujla said these had been installed in 375 villages and work was in progress in 238 more,while the target was 1,000.