Much to the relief of students and their parents, government schools have finally made arrangements for clean drinking water by installing Reverse Osmosis (RO) systems with the help of village panchayats.

The step, aimed at ensuring better healthcare, is a preventive measure to protect children from various water-borne diseases.

To start with, Government Primary School for Girls and Boys on Gill Road, Government Primary School in Majara and Barwala have recently acquired the facility and are getting supply of clean water.

Baldev Singh Mangat, Block Primary Education Officer, Ludhiana-1 Educational Block, said: “I myself checked the drinking water samples of ten schools in my block and found that nine of them failed the purity tests. This was reported to the Health department a few weeks ago. The RO systems have been installed in four out of the nine schools by the village panchayats. The remaining five schools (where samples were contaminated) are Government Primary School in Bulara, Nankheri, Sangowal, Kanesh and Manakwal.” 

Meanwhile, Harpal Kaur, district education officer (Elementary), Ludhiana, said the RO systems are being installed by the grant released under the sanitation project (a joint venture of the state government and the Centre).

“Under this project, a grant of Rs 10,000 for every school has been released through the state health department,” she added.  

District Education Officer (Secondary), Ludhiana, Amarjit Kaur said: “About a month ago, the district health department checked the water samples of some government schools and reported that more than 30 samples were not fit for consumption. Following this, the district administration decided to install RO systems in these schools, so that children can avail clean drinking water facility.” 

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