Advisor to the Governor, Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, today reviewed the water supply position during a meeting with senior officers of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department of Kashmir Division.Chief Engineer, PHE, Kashmir, Mr. Abdul Wahid, Special Secretary, PHE/ I&FC, Mr. Majid Drabu, Director Planning, PHE/ I&FC, Mr. Mohammad Yousuf, Superintending Engineers of all Ranges and Executive Engineers of all Divisions of Kashmir Zone attended the meeting.In his opening remarks, the Advisor emphasized upon sustained efforts to harness the State's abundant water resources in order to provide safe drinking water to every household. He said the performance of the engineers will be linked to the success of the schemes they execute on ground so that accountability is restored in the system.While taking detailed range-wise appraisal of the water supply position, Ganai stressed upon a well-thought out strategy before framing modalities of new water supply schemes, in particular relating to source depletion and long-term viability.The Advisor passed on-spot instructions to draw ‘Quick Action Plans’ and ‘Response Teams’ to meet any eventuality on account of water shortage, especially in rural areas where the people usually face the brunt. “We receive a lot of complaints (of water shortage) during public hearing from rural pockets.
These complaints must be redressed on priority,” he stated.Ganai asked Chief Engineer PHE to ensure that all technical processes are completed before water is supplied to the habitations."Random checking of various schemes can be introduced to check quality of water and plug holes," he added.Asking SEs to undertake extensive tours of their respective ranges, the Advisor noted with concern some complaints received about contamination of drinking water, especially in North Kashmir districts. He asked the Chief Engineer to remove all dry latrines from the river banks and seek facilitation of district administrations wherever required.Ganai also passed directions to accelerate access to quality water supply in all schools, anganwadicentres and essential services like hospitals and hotels. He also indicated at introducing Rainwater harvesting across the state by replicating the model adopted by Rajasthan, which is a water-depleted state.Later, the Chief Engineer briefed the Advisor about various ongoing works and apprised him about issues related to fund constraints which are hampering work on certain critical projects. He also briefed the Advisor about the mechanism devised to complete all languishing projects in the Kashmir Division.The SEs and Executive Engineers also gave detailed presentations about ongoing schemes and developmental works in their respective. They informed the Advisor Ganai about water-deficient areas in their jurisdiction and steps taken to address the bottlenecks.