Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government is implementing the Rs 69.92-crore Master Plan it had earlier prepared in an effort to prevent drinking water shortage in 829 villages across eight districts. The drinking water shortage is the result of irregular and inadequate monsoon last year.
Water resources minister Vijay Rupani said that of the 17,843 villages in the state with access to drinking water facilities, 11,856 are linked to group projects while 8,049 are connected to the Narmada canal network. Another 3,635 villages are connected to other sources of water, the minister said.
The capacity of 370 group pipeline projects is being increased to 337 crore litres to meet the 100 crore litre per day increase in demand for water. He further said that there are 1.52 lakh handpumps; 11,850 mini-pipeline projects; and 8,250 tubewells that are also functional. Rupani said that the government had adopted a resolution on March 23 this year to increase per capita supply of water to a minimum 20 litre and maximum of 30-50 litres (including water for cattle).
According to a resolution of the government, the 10% contribution of people to cost of water-related works had been waived off for all projects. The entire cost of the projects will be borne by the state government, Rupani said. tnn