Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj H.K. Patil said on Monday the State government will complete the rejuvenation of 6,000 defunct tanks in the State by the end of this financial year.
Addressing presspersons here on Monday, the Minister said of the 18,000 tanks identified for rejuvenation, work on 12,000 of them had begun. He expected that work on 6,000 of those tanks would be completed by next March-end.
The rejuvenation under the ‘Nammoora kere’ programme also covered removing encroachments on the tanks.
Gadag model
The Minister said the government would adopt the Gadag model of providing pure drinking water in 1,000 villages where the source of drinking water is highly contaminated with arsenic, fluoride and nitrate. The model of providing any time water (ATW) at 10 paise a litre using a machine was a project initiated by the K.H. Patil Foundation and Rural Medical Service Society, Gadag. The society, through its own initiative, had already established 100 units (machines) of pure drinking water at different spots in north Karnataka.
The process of inviting bids for installing 1,000 such units by the government was under process. Those units would be set up before the end of this fiscal, he said.
The establishment cost of each unit with a new building would be between Rs. 8 lakh and Rs. 10 lakh.
If gram panchayats have their own buildings, the unit can be established at a cost of Rs. 5 lakh. The machine purifies water even if the source is contaminated. The gram panchayats, non-governmental organisations or self-help groups could maintain the machines, he said.
For clean water
He said the objective of this initiative was to provide clean drinking water to villages. About 180 children die every hour in the country due to waterborne diseases. There should be a movement to provide drinking water to all people, he said.
