New Delhi: The Union Territory of Ladakh on Friday presented its Annual Action Plan to provide tap water connection to the rural households of the UT before the committee of Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, with members from different Central Ministries/ Departments and NITI Aayog.
The committee carries out a rigorous scrutiny of the proposed Annual Action Plan (AAP) prepared by States/ UTs before finalizing the same. Thereafter, funds are released throughout the year and regular field visits, review meetings are held to ensure implementation of the Annual Action Plan to achieve the goal of Jal Jeevan Mission.
Ladakh has planned to accomplish the ambitious target of providing tap connection to every rural household i.e. 100% coverage by 2022. Slow progress was made by the UT last year primarily due to Covid-19 pandemic lock down. During the current year2021-22, the UT plans to provide tap connections to 32,514 households and the remaining 11,568 household by next year. Out of 44,082 rural households in the UT of Ladakh, only 3,760 households so far have been provided with tap connections. Ladakh plans to provide tap connections in 451 schools, 449 Anganwadi Centre, 13 Ashramshala, 191 Gram Panchayat building and 327 healthcare centres.
In today’s meeting, the Additional secretary and Mission Director, National Jal Jeevan Mission stressed on retrofitting and augmentation of existing water supply schemes and urged the UT to start this work in ‘campaign mode’ to provide household tap connections from existing public stand-posts. The UT team assured expeditious implementation of the programme. It was highlighted that all drinking water sources need to be tested once for chemical parameters and twice for bacteriological contamination (pre and post monsoon) every year. Further, it was urged for training of at least 5 persons, preferably women, in every village for surveillance of water quality using field test kits (FTKs). The UT was asked for NABL accreditation of all laboratories in next few months. (PR)
