Governor’s Advisor Khurshid Ahmad Ganai Wednesday called for taking concrete measures to augment the existing water supply schemes (WSSs) to address water scarcity issues and making J&K zero-shortage drinking water state at earliest.
The Advisor stated this while reviewing the functioning of Public Health Engineering (PHE) and Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) departments. The meeting was attended by Secretary PHE, I&FC Farooq Ahmad Shah, Chief Engineer PHE, Jammu, Ashok Gandotra, Chief Engineer PHE Kashmir Abdul Wahid, Director Finance, Azad Ahmad Wani, Director Planning MY Bhat, Superintending Engineers and other concerned.
Ganai emphasized on sustained efforts to harness the state’s abundant water resources in order to provide safe drinking water to every household.
He asked the officials to complete all the incomplete schemes at earliest so that pure drinking water can be provided to the people in water scarce areas. He said the department can prioritize some languishing projects on merit under the new schemes so that funds can be provided for early completion of the projects.
Officials informed the Advisor that the department has forwarded 448 water supply projects with a balance cost of Rs 786.86 crore to the Finance Department against which 221 projects with a balance cost of Rs 458.49 crore have been recommended by the High-Power Committee.
The Advisor, however, stressed upon a well-thought-out strategy before framing modalities of new water supply schemes, in particular relating to source depletion and long-term viability. While reviewing the water supply scenario in major cities and towns of the state, he urged the officials to augment the existing water supply schemes so that the demand for drinking water supply is resolved.