The health department has initiated measures, including installing handpumps, to ensure safe drinking water and check the menace of encephalitis in the vulnerable pockets of the district.

The department has identified 80 zones plagued with acute encephalitis syndrome in the district. The first step is to provide availability of pure drinking for poor children.

The joint director of the National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi, Dr Himanshu Chouhan, who has been involved in prevention and treatment of children afflicted with the disease, has pleaded for access to pure drinking water.

District magistrate (DM) Anupam Kumar said the state government has pumped in Rs 3 crore to facilitate safe drinking water in hamlets ravaged by acute encephalitis syndrome. Nearly 2,000 sophisticated handpumps with platforms have been sunk in villages, hamlets and wards in zones identified by the health department. The platform would prevent waterlogging by side of the handpumps.

The public health and engineering department (PHED) is constructing more than 1,000 platforms for handpumps. PHED executive engineer Ashok Kumar Singh said: “The work of installing handpumps has been launched on a war footing. The target will be accomplished by November-end.”