Govt. has converted 3,248 water schemes into solar: Gadkari

Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari on Monday said that the government has converted 3,248 water schemes into solar.

"The drinking water schemes across the nation were not working properly due of electricity problems. So, we decided to transform drinking water schemes into solar and I am happy to announce that till now we have converted 3,248 water schemes into solar," Gadkari told a press conference here.

Emphasizing on the importance of the availability of clean drinking water, Gadkari said, "There are 17,000 villages in the country who do not get good quality drinking water, the water that these villages get often have high levels of pollutants such as arsenic and fluorides."

"What we have done is to consider these areas as danger zones and urge the state governments to give priority to solve these problems," he added.

Gadkari further said that monitoring and accountability mechanisms have been set up in the drinking water sector.