Zeliang assures of safe drinking water in Nagaland

Nagaland Chief Minister T R Zeliang today assured the Centre that the state will do its best to provide safe and adequate drinking water to its citizens and also to achieve the goal of 'Swacch Bharat' by 2019.
Along with the rest of the country, Nagaland has also drawn up an action plan for achieving the goals of providing clean and sustainable drinking water and sanitation to every citizen, the chief minister said during the closing ceremony of 'National Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation Awareness Week' here this afternoon.
He said that so far, 1,140 villages out of 1,530 villages and habitations in the state have been covered under drinking water while water testing laboratories have been set up in all the 11 districts to ensure the quality of water.

Stating that the status of coverage of individual households with toilets in rural areas in the state stands at 62 per cent, Zeliang said that in line with the Centre's 'Swacch Bharat' programme, the state has also made significant progress, especially in the Information Education and Communication (IEC) campaign.
The chief minister assured the Central Government that the state will do its best to provide safe and adequate drinking water to its citizens, and also to achieve total sanitation, the goal of 'Swacch Bharat' by 2019.
He, however, said that in order "to achieve this noble goal, we look forward with expectation that the Government of India will continue to extend liberal support and assistance to us along with active hand holding".

Union Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ram Kripal Yadav, who also attended the ceremony, said that despite the average rainfall of the state being above the national average at 2000mm, the people of the state are facing problem of drinking water.
Assuring that Centre would extend all possible support to conserve and preserve through proper water management system during rainy season, rain water harvest projects and check dams, he asked the state government to work out long term projects which would be funded by the Centre.
The occasion was also marked by a skit on water and sanitation by Dreamz Unlimited, Dimapur, a folk song by Kohima village and a puppet show by SRCC, New Delhi.