In furtherance of the objective to provide safe drinking water to the rural masses, the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today announced to set up a ‘Drinking Water Quality Testing Regulatory Authority’ to ensure the adherence of the prescribed quality norms for potable water supply fit for human consumption.
This was announced by Mr. Badal during a meeting to review the progress of various rural water supply schemes under the prestigious World Bank Project Stage-I with the Seven-member World Bank team led by its senior Water & Sanitation Specialist & Task Team leader Mr. Srinivasa Rao Podi Pi Reddy here at Chief Minister’s residence this morning. Mr. Badal said that the regulatory would be mandated to ensure hygienically tested quality drinking water to the people residing in villages across the state to save them from falling prey to the water borne diseases especially the deadly menace of cancer especially in the Malwa belt due to excessive use of pesticides, insecticides besides the presence of heavy metals like nickel, chromium and uranium etc. in the ground water. The regulatory would also focus to maintain the data base of quality water and documentation of good practices involved in the supply of high quality drinking water aimed at ensuring zero tolerance towards the water borne diseases to achieve the ultimate goal of healthy living.
Highly appreciating the concept of establishing the authority, Mr. Reddy said that he was fully satisfied with the pace of development for providing potable drinking water to the rural masses who were now taking keen interest in the rural water supply schemes being health conscious especially in southern districts of the state. On the request of the Chief Minister, Mr. Reddy promised to install free water connections along with meters to all the domestic consumers in the villages under the ongoing WB aided rural water supply project. He also apprised the Chief Minister about a unique scheme of WB to cover 100 villages to provide the facility of sewerage as a pilot project, where the work had already been commissioned in 19 villages and balance villages would also be covered in due course of time. Mr. Reddy also informed the Chief Minister that after the success of the ongoing sewerage project in the rural sector the scheme would be replicated in nearly 1000 more such villages in the World Bank’s next project of rural water supply & sanitation stage-II of Rs.1200 crore likely to be approved soon by the GoI, which would be taken up during next fiscal. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister also asked the WB task team leader to work out the modalities thereby recommending the state government a suitable technology for effective, liquid and solid waste management besides bailing out the state in cleaning the village ponds, which had posed a major health hazard to the rural population. He also solicited technical support from the WB team for disposal of sullage in the villages, which was a major problem in the way to ensure clean and pollution free environment. Mr. Badal also asked Mr. Reddy to explore ways and means to provide safe drinking water in the corporation cities of Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Bathinda on the basis of their expertise and vast experience.
Responding to the issues raised by the Chief Minister, Mr. Reddy assured him that he would soon convene a meeting of country’s eminent scientists, hydrologists and water experts to effectively deal with the problems related to safe potable water supply in the cities, cleaning of ponds and treatment of sullage and waste water making it fit for irrigation purposes so that a time tested technology could be suggested to the Water Supply & Sanitation and Irrigation departments for taking effective steps to combat these issues. Mr. Reddy said that he would also consult the internationally acclaimed water experts for seeking their technical support to sort out these issues and submit recommendations to the state government accordingly. The Chief Minister also asked Mr. Reddy to participate in the meeting with the mayors and commissioner of the municipal corporations of these cities along with its team to suggest various steps to be taken in mitigating the problem of drinking water scarcity on one hand and ensure its quality supply on the other.
Prominent amongst others who attended the meeting included Principal Secretary Water Supply & Sanitation Mr. Suresh Kumar, Special Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. Gaggandip Singh Brar, Program Director WB project Punjab Daljeet Singh Cheema besides the Chief Engineers of Punjab Water Supply & Sanitation department. The WB team included Procurement Specialist Joseph Shine, Finance Consultant Abhishek Pruthi, Senior Procurement Consultant Dhirendra Kumar, Water Quality Consultant Amit Nair, Institution Development Specialist Manish Kumar and Consultant Dr. BKD Raja.