Mansa awarded for improved water supply, sanitation

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 7

Mansa district has been conferred the award for being most improved district of Punjab in water supply and sanitation, at the prestigious India Today Conclave.

As per a note issued here, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh gave the award to Mansa Deputy Commissioner (DC) Apneet Riyait in Chandigarh.

Giving information about the efforts put in to attain the target, Riyait said at present, 12 new water works were being established by the Water Supply and Sanitation Department under the World Bank Project. This will cost around Rs 16 crore.

Seven out of the 12 water works were already working while the remaining would be completed and would start working by March 31. Besides, all 66 villages under the said project had been given water connections. This has cost around Rs 4.78 crore. Under the project, 19,566 houses had been benefitted.

Under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Rural), the target was to build 17,628 toilets in the 245 gram panchayats of Mansa. As per the note, 16,635 toilets have been built or are being built in these gram panchayats.

Under the project, each beneficiary is provided Rs 15,000 in three instalments to construct a toilet. Mansa was declared open-defecation free (ODF) in March 2018. The project cost Rs 30 crore, out of which funds to the tune of Rs 25 crore had been received. Besides, to educate and motivate people to achieve open defecation free status, awareness campaigns and other workshops had been held in the district.

Morning Monitoring Committees at the village level stop people from defecating in the open and motivate them to use toilets. Around 1,02,547 individuals have benefitted from this scheme.

Riyait appreciated the officials and employees of the district who closely monitored the projects and worked for their success. Mansa district has 237 villages, 245 gram panchayats and 64 other habitations. As against 237 villages, there exist 237 RO plants. There are a total of 162 water supply schemes, out of which 146 are canal based and 16 tubewell based and all these schemes are working well.

Out of these schemes, 90 are being run by the Water Supply Department and 72 by gram panchayats. The total population of Mansa is 6,08,948 and the number of houses is 1,10,584 out of which 68,683 have been provided water supply connection.