As Himachal Pradesh faces an acute shortage of water in the months from April to June in most parts of the state, the government is planning to start buffer storage projects in the Mandi and Kullu districts of the state to meet requirements.

A state government official said State Level Scheme Sanctioning Committee (SLSSC) has sanctioned Rs. 353.57 crore to implement this project at ground level.

Special emphasis is being laid on strengthening drinking water sources along with providing functional household tapped drinking water under Jal Jeevan Mission and a special plan to construct buffer storage to strengthen drinking water schemes has been prepared.

As a pilot project, the scheme would be initially implemented in Mandi and Kullu districts and after successful results, the same would be implemented in other districts as well.

Under the scheme, the gravity drinking water schemes are being strengthened in far-flung areas of the Kullu and Mandi districts.

The state government is planning to create buffer storage for strengthening 147 schemes in nine blocks of Mandi district and 110 schemes in five blocks of Kullu district.

Under the scheme, gravity drinking water would be accumulated for about three months and would be utilized at the time of need. Electricity would not be used for this process, he added.

The official stated that the Centre government has provided a total of Rs 2,990.10 crore till March 2022 under Jal Jeevan Mission and under this, 8.42 lakh houses have been provided with tapped water whereas since 72 years of independence only about 7.63 lakh houses have been provided with taps.

A total of 17.28 lakhs of houses or families have been provided the taps in the state. The state government has also appreciated the total coverage and work potential of the state under Jal Jeevan Mission.

In the year 2019-20, an amount of Rs 57.15 crore and in the year 2020-21, an amount of Rs 221.28 crore have been provided as an incentive to the state. The state government has provided an additional amount of Rs. 50 crore as an incentive for as best performing state for successful implementation of the scheme.

To ensure quality drinking water the Jal Shakti department has established 60 laboratories in the state and 14 laboratories set up at the district level have been recognized by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). Besides this 36 sub-divisional level laboratories have also been recognized by NABL. About 83 percent of laboratories in the state have been recognized by NABL, which is the highest at the national level.

As many as five women from each village are being identified and provided with training to test drinking water with Field Test Kit. To date, training has been provided to 40090 women and in the last two years, water quality testing training has been provided to 61,901 persons in the state. In the Financial Year 2020-21, one Field Test Kit each has been provided to 3615 Panchayats. In the Financial Year 2020-21, 18150 villages have been provided with Field Test Kits. Apart from this, to provide transparency in water quality, all the laboratories of the state have been opened for the public, in which testing is being done at minimal rates.

Last year, 2,93,245 drinking water samples were sent to laboratories for testing and 1,37,865 water samples were tested through Field Test Kits. In the present Financial Year, a target to test 3,00,606 water samples through laboratories and 1,42,734 water samples through Field Test Kits has been set.

The successful implementation of the scheme would prove beneficial in realizing the vision of the government to provide safe drinking water in the state, he further stated.