By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Jan 31: The state government has yet again downplayed the apprehensions of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) which had issued notice to several states, including Meghalaya, highlighting the presence of arsenic and fluoride in groundwater, saying that surface water is supplied in the state.
The NGT had issued the notice after taking suo-motu cognisance of a media report that highlighted the presence of arsenic and fluoride beyond permissible limits in groundwater in some pockets of various states and UTs.
The green panel observed that the presence of these metals or chemicals are “very serious” and requires “urgent preventive and protective steps”.
The report stated that arsenic was detected in groundwater in parts of 230 districts across 25 states while fluoride was found in some pockets of 469 districts in 27 states, the NGT had noted in a recent order.
PHE Minister Marcuise Marak addressed the NGT notice, stating that it was a general directive for multiple states and that Meghalaya was not affected because the state does not provide subterranean water.
“The state has surface water,” the minister declared.
Nonetheless, he stated that the government is checking the North Garo Hills water supply because there are some problems with it.
In the meantime, the minister announced that Jal Jeevan Mission has reached up to 73.96 per cent (4.8 lakhs) of all households in the state. The government hopes to have reached the 100% target or 6.5 lakh households by March of this year, Marak said.
While acknowledging that there have been problems obtaining land for the projects, he explained that most of the projects have taken off while some are currently stalled because of power connections.
While affirming that JJM’s fund utilisation is good, he also mentioned that there have been some problems with water not getting to households due to an increase in population and even a decrease in water during the lean season, making it impossible for them to fill the tank.