The District Administration is gearing itself up to face the possible drinking water problem in the district by instructing the Rural Water Supply Department to ensure that every village is assured of drinking water and put in place the measures by April 10.
Collector V. Sheshadri told reporters on Monday that Rs. 30 crore would be spent on keeping the drinking water supply in good state. Out of the 660 works in the agency area taken up with Rs.16 crore from IAP funds, 600 were completed and the rest would be ready in a few days. Under funds received from the National Rural Drinking Water Programme and the World Bank, borewells would be dug and should be completed by April 10. Deepening and flushing of borewells and other works would be taken up under the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) and non-CRF funds totalling Rs. 4 crore. The government has recently increased the expenditure from ZPPs’ general fund on drinking water from nine per cent to 30 per cent and the salaries of borewell mechanics would also be taken care of with this amount.
Call centre
A call centre was established at the office of the Superintending Engineer of RWS and MPDOs’ office in the district and any complaint on drinking water supply should be solved within 48 hours.