- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, April 16, 2022: Tripura ranked 16th position across India and fifth in north-east region covering 3,82,475 households i.e. 50.32 percent in providing functional household tap connection (FHTC) under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) till April 15 last, said Drinking Water and Sanitation (DWS) minister Sushanta Chowdhury on Saturday.
In view of the outstanding performance in implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission in the past two financial years, union government’s ministry of Jal Shakti rewarded Tripura government Rs 100 crore, he added.
Speaking to reporters at Civil Secretariat here in Agartala city on Tuesday afternoon, Chowdhury said “Tripura government’s DWS department has been working in a mission mode to provide FHTC under Jal Jeevan Mission since 2019 across the state and till April 15 last, 3,82,475 households got connections.”
“In total, there are 7,60,052 households in rural areas across the state. Before implementation of JJM, 24,502 houses received tap water connection i.e. 3.22 percent. After JJM implemented, 3,57,973 households received water connection. Altogether, 3,82,475 households got the connection i.e. 50.30 percent covered across Tripura”, he added.
Comparing better coverage record of Tripura than the national average, DWS minister said “In total, there are 19,31,99,823 households in rural areas across the country. Before JJM, 3,23,62,808 households were covered and now, 6,19,29,796 households have been covered. Altogether, 9,42,92,634 households have covered i.e. 48.81 percent.”
Citing the status of states in north-eastern region, Chowdhury said “Tripura bagged the fifth position as 1,05,063 households are there in Sikkim, 22,323 households in Arunachal Pradesh, 1,33,632 households in Mizoram, 1,51,566 households in Manipur. If the number of households would have been similar to those other four states, then Tripura could have earned the first position. While Assam is having 63.15 lakh households and covered 37 percent till now”.
Sharing FHTC coverage in habitation across Tripura, he said “There are 8,723 hamlets across the state under 1,178 Gram Panchayats and Village Committees. Among them, 100 percent covered in 1,476 hamlets, 75-100 percent covered in 1,185 hamlets, 50-75 percent covered in 1,547 hamlets, and 0-50 percent covered in 2,762 hamlets, works started in 1,457 hamlets and works in 296 hamlets are yet to be started”.
Following the guidelines of Jal Jeevan Mission, drinking water connection have to reach all the schools and anganwadi centres. Accordingly, there are 4,536 schools and among them, 3,407 schools were fully covered. There are 8,932 anganwadi centres and out of them, 4,735 centres covered completely while remaining 4,197 centres to be completed, he added.
Apart from water connections matter, DWS minister said “A total of 915 Iron Removal Plants (IRPs) are functional currently while more 1300 to come up in next few days. There are 2,220 deep tube well at present and more 1200 to come up, existing 3,758 mini-tube well and more 2500 to be prepared.”
He further said that there are 463 habitation where supplying of piped drinking water is difficult. Hence, the DWS department had arranged 205 tankers to provide the people of those hamlets with safe drinking water.
When asked about the status of ground water in Tripura, DWS Secretary Kiran Gitte said “The department is dependent on three sources- rivers and rivulets or streams, surface water treatment plant and ground water. However, ground water is being utilized upto 90 percent there is no big-scale industries or factories, agricultural lands are limited and large portion are covered under forest area. Rainwater harvesting is the last option where we are not getting any source.”
