CHANDIGARH: Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday virtually launched the ‘Har Ghar Pani, Har Ghar Safai’ mission as part of his government’s campaign to accomplish the goal of 100% potable piped water supply in all the rural households of the state by March next year, thus making Punjab the first state in the country to achieve this distinction.
The Chief Minister inaugurated one Mega Surface Water Supply Scheme, covering 85 villages in Moga district, 144 new water supply schemes for 172 villages, 121 Arsenic & Iron removal plants (35 inaugurated, along with 86 recently completed and dedicated to people). The scheme will benefit more than 1.6 lakh residents from 155 villages in Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur districts by helping replace groundwater with surface water supply for drinking, besides resolving the problem of arsenic affected habitations.
The scheme is being funded by World Bank, Jal Jeewan Mission of GoI, NABARD and State Budget
Terming safe drinking water as his government’s top priority, the Chief Minister said the incumbent Congress government had spent an average of Rs 920 crore annually on water supply and sanitation schemes, as against a mere Rs 219 crore expended by the previous SAD-BJP Government. A total of Rs 1,450 crore had been spent on rural sanitation and rural drinking water supply since taking over in March 2017, he said, noting that 99.5 percent of the rural habitations in Punjab today have access to piped water supply. Potable piped water is being supplied to 23.71 lakh rural households (67.65 % coverage), 6 lakh of which were added during the Covid pandemic, he said. He further pointed out that Punjab has already been declared Open Defecation Free in both rural and urban areas, with Rs 863 crore having been spent on construction of 5.75 lakh individual rural toilets.