BZ News Desk
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir administration is all set to improve the quality of drinking water and its accessibility to the unconnected areas of the union territory by September 2022.
At a funding of 10,226.00 crore under Jal Jeevan Mission, Jal Shakti department has set the target of providing drinking water meeting Bureau of Indian Standard 10500 in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The UT of J&K envisages to provide Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) capable of providing quality drinking water meeting BIS 10500 standards,” reads Ministry of Home Affairs annual report.
As per the newly revised standards, the permissible and desirable limits for various parameters in drinking water has been set as IS-10500.
The administration also has targeted to increase the number of registered connections in the union territory by making drinking water accessible to remote and unconnected areas.
The department as per the report has decided to complete the 100% coverage of piped water supply to all 18.17 lakh rural households by September 2022.
“At 55 litre per capita per day on a sustainable basis approximately 10.35 lakh unconnected rural Households (HHs) will be connected with Piped Water Supply (PWS) with an approximate funding of 10,226.00 crore,” it said
Jammu and Kashmir currently has 43 per cent of the total households with Piped Water Supply, which is much more than the national average of 20.81 per cent.
“Till 2020, there were 7.82 lakh registered Piped Water Supply connections out of total 18.17 lakh Households. 100% coverage of piped water supply to all 18.17 lakh rural households by September 2022 has been envisaged. Besides, coverage of piped water, supply to all the uncovered Schools and Anganwad is also targeted,” the MHA report said.
This year, the Union government, in its objective to give a push to Jal Jeevan Mission n Jammu and Kashmir has allocated a whopping sum of 9289.15 crore to the UT under Jal Jeevan Mission 2021-2022, which is Rs.6412.71 crore more the previous year’s budget allocation.
In 2021-22, the Centre had allocated Rs 2747 crore which was nearly 4 times more than the preceding year 2021-2022. This year the government has allocated a staggering amount which is nearly more than double to its previous year budget.
Pertinently, this year two district Srinagar and Ganderbal have achieved the target of having 100 per cent households with tap water connections.