The emergency situation created by the spread of the coronavirus has held up the distribution of report cards on the quality of water and quality of the water source for all of 4,182 drinking water wells in Amballur panchayat on the eastern outskirts of Kochi.
The panchayat has set an example in managing water resources and ensuring the quality of available water through a series of programmes that have culminated in the panchayat authorities checking water quality in all its drinking water wells with the help of the State authorities under various schemes.
Panchayat president Jalaja Mohan said that it was a programme drawn up by the ruling council to test water quality and to ensure water supply even as a hot summer season approached. Drinking water supply is a major problem in the dry months.
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The panchayat council drew up a plan to test water quality in all of its open wells and to implement water recharging programmes across the panchayat, she said. The project was brought before the ‘Jalanidhi’ programme, which aimed at ensuring drinking water supply and promoting sanitation programmes across the State.
The Amballur panchayat has a total of around 6,000 households and a total population of 28,000. It was necessary that the panchayat authorities did something at the ground level to ensure that water supply was not disrupted under any circumstance.
The testing of water from the wells was carried out after a survey was conducted in the panchayat using a mobile application that provided a list of the open wells that comprised those under private and public ownership, said Ms. Jalaja Mohan.
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Water from the wells were collected and tested using help from the Jalanidhi project and the results are ready.
A card has been prepared for each of the wells on the quality and standard of the water. These would be distributed as soon as the current situation changes, the panchayat president added.