TURA: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma has announced a Rs 35-crore water project, to be funded by the DoNER Ministry, to end shortage of drinking water in Tura town.
Sangma announced the project during a high-level meeting with the heads of various departments, including PHE Minister Samlin Malgniang, here on Saturday afternoon. Before the Assembly elections in February, the NPP national president had promised to address the issue.
The project will be under DoNER’s North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS). Work will be done in two phases where a feeder main line will be laid and old and leaking water pipes will be replaced. The deadline for completion is March 2020.
Once complete, the project will be able to provide 23.42 million litres of drinking water per day that would be sufficient for a population of over 1.80 lakh people.
Along with power, water crisis has been a constant refrain for the people of this second most important town in the state for over five years. Former South Tura MLA Agatha Sangma, who recently resigned, had told the electorate before the February polls that she would work on the issue on war footing.
She had given a proposal to the government that was been taken up by the government and its the PHE Department “as there was an urgent need to ensure water availability in Tura town”, said the chief minister, while appreciating the role of the PHE minister and his team for fast action.
“The sight of young children filling up pots and pans from road side taps and adjoining streams is an aberration we can do without,” said Sangma, adding, “when we took over the government, we decided that we will tackle the problem of water crisis.”
Though the government is committed to providing safe drinking water to its citizens, the chief minister conceded that “due to paucity of funds, such projects cannot be taken up all at once for different parts of the state”. But he promised that such projects would be taken up in a phased manner in other parts of the state as well.
He also informed that under NESIDS, the Government of India has sanctioned Rs 190 crore for Meghalaya, of which Rs 60 crore has been accorded for PHE Department, Rs 50 crore each for PWD and Power departments and Rs 20 crore for Health Department.
The decade-old Rymbai water supply scheme in East Jaintia Hills would also be taken up “on a priority basis”.
“Water supply is very critical for the state and we are giving maximum projects to PHE,” he said.
Sangma informed that the government has been working on set goals with defined verticals like social, infrastructure and socio-economic to ensure equitable development.
Asserting that the Centre was keen to ensure accelerated flow of funds for development of power, road and telecommunication sectors, the chief minister said, “The MDA government was positively engaging with the Centre for release of funds for infrastructure development.”
Following the announcement of the project, the Chief Minister and PHE Minister held review meeting with officials of the department to discuss measures to improve water availability in Tura town, including short and long-term agenda for ensuring better supply.
In the meeting, the chief minister acknowledged the suggestions of the PHE Department for laying down Public Utility Ducts, which have provision for underground gas, water, telecom cables and sewage disposal.
Sangma asked other departments to come up with plans and proposals to address the challenge of jhum cultivation, which has posed a threat to catchment areas, recharging of groundwater and provision for rainwater harvesting in colleges, schools and government institutions.
The PHE department also drew the attention of the chief minister and PHE minister for procurement of water tanker in view of the A’chik Baptist Dalgipa Krima Convention, which will be hosted in Tura.
Chief advisor to the chief minister and MLA North Tura, Thomas A Sangma, West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Singh, SP M G R Kumar, and PHE Chief Engineer S K Blah, were among the people who attended the meeting.
