Details

Category: ENVIRONMENT

Published: 17 December 2019

• GoI team reviews implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission
• Special awareness campaign namely Wakeup4Water launched to raise awareness, community participation at Panchayat level

JAMMU: A one day workshop on Jal Jeevan Mission was organized today by PHE Department at Udyog Bhawan, to review and deliberate on the strategy for implementation of the ambitious Mission in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam was the Chief Guest during inaugural function of the workshop, while, Additional Secretary, Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, Bharat Lal, who is also the Mission Director of the Jal Jeevan Mission chaired the technical session. Commissioner Secretary PHE/I&FC, Ajeet Kumar Sahu, Deputy Secretary Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, GoI, Manoj Kumar Sahoo, Chief Engineer PHE Jammu, Dr SK Chadha, Chief Engineer PHE Kashmir Abdul Wahid, departmental officers and officials from all districts participated in the workshop.

During the workshop, detailed deliberations were held regarding the implementation strategy to be used for successful implementation of  JJM in J&K. Commissioner Secretary, PHE Sahu, briefed the workshop that J&K government has envisaged to connect each and every household of the UT with Piped Water Supply by December 2021 against the national target of 2024. The J&K ranks 12th at national level with 30.5% coverage of Tap water.

Under the initiative, it is aimed to provide 100% potable tap water supply of BIS Standard to every household, proper upkeep of water supply systems and maintaining sustainability for the next fifteen years, besides promoting efficiency in water usage. For this, a three phased strategy has been devised to achieve objectives under this initiative with Phase I aimed for completion by June 2020.

Elaborating on Phase I, Sahu said that seven districts including 4 in Kashmir division namely Srinagar, Ganderbal, Shopian, Pulwama and 3 in Jammu division namely Reasi, Poonch and Samba, besides 52 additional blocks from other districts, will be taken up for hundred percent coverage to ensure functional household tap connections by June 2020.

He further said that to achieve the outlined objective, a detailed action plan has been prepared by the department. Besides, Phase I is already under implementation while DPRs for other phases are under preparation.

He informed that special awareness exercises are also being conducted with focus on increasing awareness and community participation at village/panchayat level. A social media campaign for mass awareness called ‘Wakeup4water’ has also been launched on multiple social media platforms to promote water conservation at individual level.

Addressing the workshop, Chief Secretary informed that J&K’s men and machinery is geared up and working conscientiously to achieve JJM targets within the set timelines. He requested for GoI’s continued support so that JJM can be made a success in J&K. He also congratulated the engineers of the department on their work and encouraged them to increase the pace of work under the initiative.

Additional Secretary, Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, Bharat Lal, complementing the UT on their execution strategy for JJM, encouraged introspection by engineers to think about the long term Operation and management (O&M) strategy and sustainability of the project while planning, development of the water supply schemes. He asked them to undertake techno-economic appraisal in consultation with the people. He also asked the department to focus on devising ways for Grey water management and its successful reuse.

He stressed on the need for change in mindset of the department from ‘building infra’ to ‘service delivery’, so that the department can successfully fulfil its mandate of providing drinking water to all. He encouraged for undertaking utility orientation, and contract management training of department engineers.

He also asked the department to increase pace of work and ensure geo-tagging of the created assets so that their progress can be reviewed in real-time. He asked the department to focus on capacity building of communities to encourage people to think for their welfare and development of their community. During the course of the workshop, e-inauguration of 8 Water Supply Schemes of Kashmir division was also undertaken. Besides, the designs of a special JJM Calendar encouraging water conservation among people was also released by the dignitaries.