Water to every household within 5 years: Nitish

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said that his government aims to supply water to every household within five years, asserting that not more than four-five per cent of people in the state get tap water.
"Not more than 4-5 per cent of people are getting tap water and even after implementation of all the approved schemes of PHED (Public Health Engineering Department), a maximum of 22 per cent of the population of the state would get water from taps," Kumar said.
He said supplying water to every household is an important component of "seven resolves" and though it is challenging, it would be fulfilled within next five year.

A survey is going on in this regard, Kumar said.
The 'seven resolves' has been adopted by the 'Grand Secular Alliance' government in the state as a policy.
Kumar inaugurated 75 piped water supply schemes worth Rs 215.47 crore of PHED (Public Health and Engineering Department) in rural areas and 265 mini pipe drinking programmes to be run by solar energy.

He said as per data provided to him by the PHED, 90 per cent of water in rural areas is made available through hand pumps and only six per cent through tap water and only two per cent of the masses use supply water.

Kumar said analysis is being done on annual amount of rainfall in the last 10 years, during which, except for two years, the state has recorded less than 1000 mm of rain.
Water level is going down due to shortage of rain, he said.
Kumar flagged off mobile laboratories for checking water quality and gadgets for purification of water.
PHED minister Krishnandan Verma, Development Commissioner Shishir Sinha and Principal Secretary PHED Anshuli Arya were present on the occasion among others.