Assam : Sustainability of water supply under Jal Jeevan Mission

The sustainability of water supply schemes under the Central government’s flagship ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ programme was given special importance by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on May 28(Friday).

To provide safe and adequate drinking water in rural areas by the year 2024, the Jal Jeevan Mission is being implemented.

The chief minister reviewed the scheme with officials of the Public Health Engineering Department and said that for the sustainability of the mission the pipes laid for water supply by the department were critical.

The CM directed the officials to prepare a maintenance policy, saying that the items used needs to be specified. The implementation ideas and operational mechanism for the assets should be created under the Mission.

The over ground water channels used for piped water supply schemes keep changing which leads to the non operation of many schemes and therefore a scientific and quality study should be carried out before the scheme is executed, said Sarma.

Recruitment of workforce for the Mission was directed by Sarma to the authorities with taking in innovative ideas to make the PHED schemes sustainable.

Zonal meetings should be done with the contractors for quicker implementation of the schemes.

The meeting was attended by PHED Minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass, Additional Chief Secretary S Abbasi, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Samir Kumar Sinha, and other senior officials.