Secretary District Legal Services Authority Udhampur Sandeep Kour on Thursday inspected Salmey water filtration plant in Udhampur town and inspected drinking water quality being supplied to people after its restoration done on the direction of District Legal Services Authority (DLSA).On the direction of Chairman District Legal Services Authority (Session Judge Mohan Lal Manhas), the Secretary DLSA took stock of the functioning of water filtration plant here and checked quality of water being supplied to local residents .She also took the samples of water and sent the same to laboratory for checking its quality. The Secretary DLSA during his visit checked the pumping and filtration and alum and bleaching mixing plant and found that most of the things properly functioning which were found defunct during her earlier visit a month ago . She asked the Executive Engineer PHE to ensure that safe and clean water is supplied to the inhabitants of the town and discuss measures to be taken for ensuring quality of drinking water.
She also stressed upon the officials to carry out regular cleanliness of water tanks and also inquired about the training being imparted to employees responsible for mixing alum in water plant. She issued directions to PHE functionaries to use cleaning agents like alum/ bleaching powder/chlorine in the plants after proper testing to supply clean water to the inhabitants.
Talking to media, the Secretary DLSA said that in September this year team of DLSA conducted a surprise inspection of PHE water filtration plant and found most of the equipment defunct at the installation. She said the residents of Udhampur were being supplied untreated water directly from Tawi river , causing a major health risk as alum and other filtration machinery was not in working condition and the alum and bleaching powder being mixed was not as per the standard norms . “We had taken samples of water from plant and after laboratory reports they were found unfit for drinking” she said. Secretary DLSA said taking serious note, the matter was taken with administration and PHE department who assured that things will be streamlined within month time. She added today to check the development we visited the spot along with XEN PHE and found most of things had been brought on track . “We had again taken samples of water and sent to laboratory for checking” she added.Executive Engineer PHE said that after direction of Secretary DLSA the department made efforts to streamline things and supply safe drinking water to people but due to shortage of staff and paucity of funds more is to be done in future. He added that soon two more filtration plants - Sountha and Rehmbal are being made functional as tendering is on and within one month’s time the twin installations would be made functional after which people will get more clean drinking water .He assured DLSA secretary that no such complaints will come in future and our efforts will continue in this direction.