HP gears up to tackle drought-like situation due to dry spell

With the threat of drought looming large due to a dry spell in Himachal Pradesh, Chief Secretary VC Pharka today took stock of the situation at a high level meeting and directed officials to properly maintain the drinking water schemes.
"The state government is geared up to tackle a possible drought-like situation in the state and the Chief Minister has directed all the line departments to take appropriate steps to check water shortage in all towns and villages," he said.
The Chief Secretary sought information from all chief engineers and superintending engineers about the drinking water and sewerage schemes through video conferencing and directed them to ensure locking and fencing of all water storage tanks to ensure their safety.

Emphasising on the quality of drinking water, he asked the departments concerned to ensure that the drinking water supply does not get polluted due to sewerage or other reasons as due to the long dry spell there was a possibility of water resources getting polluted.
He directed the Irrigation and Public Health Department to take regular samples of all the water supply schemes and send the report to the government, adding that any lapse would not be tolerated.
Pharka said currently 9,393 water supply schemes and 34,605 hand pumps were catering to the drinking water requirement. The Irrigation and Public Health Department had deployed 29,000 employees for smooth water supply to each household and 49 sewerage treatment plants were functional in different parts of the state, he added.

Chief Engineer I and PH Mandi Zone apprised the Chief Secretary that all water supply schemes were functioning smoothly and the water samples were being tested on a regular basis at the district level laboratories set up at Mandi and Kullu.

Chief Engineer, Dharamshala Zone said 978 water supply schemes were functional in Kangra and Chamba districts and so far there were no reports of a drought-like situation. He said 75 percent water tanks had been locked and 65 per cent tanks had been fenced in these districts.
Chief Engineer, Hamirpur Zone said 889 water supply schemes were catering to the requirement of Una, Hamirpur and Bilaspur districts and the 10,363 handpumps had been installed in the water scarce areas. He said 7,220 samples were sent to different laboratories for testing and a proposal had been prepared for providing adequate water to NIT, Hamirpur.

Pharka directed to take regular samples of drinking water in Shimla for testing and ensuring safe drinking water supply.
Secretary Anuradha Thakur said the work on 128 out of 172 drinking water supply schemes had been completed by spending Rs 21 crore.
The work on remaining schemes was pending as the Centre had not released the funds and the state government had approved Rs 25 crores separately to complete these schemes.