Department of Water Supply & Sanitation, Punjab conducted one day workshop today at Hotel Shivalik View, Chandigarh. The Motive of the workshop was to deliberate on the issue related with Water Supply Service delivery from Rural Water Supply Schemes keeping in view the mandate of the department to provide 100% coverage of all household in rural areas of Punjab with at least 70 lpcd of potable water supplied through piped water supply schemes through individual water supply connections. Disclosing this official spokesperson of the Punjab Government said that the workshop was chaired by Mr. A. K. Sinha, Secretary Water Supply & Sanitation. In his keynote address Mr. Sinha said informed that in Punjab the number of villages with more than 10 hours water supply is 531 whereas 731 villages get the metered water supply. Similarly 155 villages get the water supply 24X7 and in total 885 villages in Punjab where the 100% households have water connections. He said that it is remarkable achievement that 2428 villages in Punjab are presently receiving higher revenue from water charges than O & M expenditure. The spokesperson said that Ms. Meike Van Ginneken, Global Water (South Asia Regional Head) World Bank Washington specifically flew in from Washington to share her views on Service Delivery issues.
Dr. Abhinav Trikha highlighted the importance of service delivery and also emphasized that there is a paradigm shift in the approach of Department from construction centric to service delivery concept. He said that District Fatehgarh Sahib of the Punjab is one of the districts of the 17 districts of whole of India who have been declared the Open Defecation Free districts. He said that by October 31, 2017 all the districts of the Punjab would get the tag of ODF (Open Defecation Free) Districts.Mr. S.R. Podipireddy, Task Team Leader World Bank highlighted the necessity for the sustainable development goals and emphasized for their achievements through Punjab Rural Water & Sanitation Sector Improvement program.Mr. D.S. Cheema Chief Engineer (North) gave information of current service delivery arrangements and service levels available from the Rural Water Supply Schemes in the State. Mr. P.S. Bhatti Chief Engineer (Central) who is in-charge of Water Supply Schemes in water logged areas highlighted the issues being encountered in canal based water supply schemes functioning in water logged areas. Findings of a study conducted in canal based schemes were also discussed to show ways for improving the service levels in the canal based schemes. Necessity for re-organizing the department for inducting social scientists/ specialists to provide support to community were also deliberated by speakers along with Department's role in operation of completed schemes.Mr. Kimothhe, Director Operations from Uttrakhand State presented the Operational and O&M arrangements of RWSS in Uttrakhand. Second session was devoted to service delivery monitoring and in session 3 the theme was improvement in Service Delivery by partnering with communities. At the conclusion of workshop open discussion was held for making provisions in the project to meet service delivery goals.