Ranchi, Dec. 19: The capital's three major water sources - Hatia, Rukka (Getalsud) and Gonda dams that quench the city's thirst - may soon receive a fresh leash of life, courtesy a Rs 37-crore project proposed to tide over the prevailing crisis in Ranchi.
State water resources minister Chandra Prakash Choudhary said that the department had begun the process for sanctioning the funds to increase the capacity of the dams by desiltation and reactivate their underground water levels to beat the shortage ahead of the summer next year.
Out of the Rs 37 crore, Rs 4.60 crore will be spent on the rejuvenation of Hatia dam, Rs 14.73 crore on Gonda and the rest on Rukka dam.
"We are working out plans and modalities to take up rejuvenation work at all the three prominent dams in Ranchi and launch urban drinking water schemes," Choudhary, who also holds the drinking water and sanitation portfolio, said.
In the last week of October, the fast depleting water level at Hatia reservoir had prompted the drinking water and sanitation department to resort to water rationing, triggering panic about an imminent crisis in at least one-third areas of the capital. Department sources had claimed that water level in Hatia dam was 18 feet below the required level.
Since then, instead of three-hour daily supply, people of Doranda, North Office Para, South Office Para, AG Colony, SAIL Colony, HEC Colony, Hinoo, Airport, Hatia railway station, Hawainagar, Singh More and others have been getting water only on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
Today, the minister, who was addressing a news conference at Suchana Bhavan held to highlight achievements of the Raghubar Das government that is about to complete one year in office, sought to allay citizens' fear about water shortage and said that the department was already at work to beat any sort of crisis.
Water resources secretary Sukhdeo Singh and his counterpart from drinking water and sanitation department A.P. Singh were also present.
Sukhdeo said that a joint technical committee, comprising officials of the two departments, would be formed soon to look for alternative drinking water sources in and around the capital.
This apart, A.P. Singh added work on interlinking the pipelines of Rukka and Hatia dams was going on and was expected to be over by January next year.
The minister said achieving zero open defecation by 2019 was high on the priority.
Against the target of three lakh toilets (private and public), construction of more than 50 per cent was already complete, he added.
On irrigation projects, the minister said the government this year had increased the canal length of Chandil barrage on Suvernarekha river to 127.88km from the last year's 113.13km. Similarly, about a 15km-long irrigation facility has been created through Sonua river in Chaibasa, among others.
Asked why vast tracts of agriculture fields still lack irrigation facilities, Sukhdeo said: "See, in the state, around 24 lakh hectare area has scope for irrigation. If we include both the existing and ongoing schemes, we will cover around 9 lakh hectare. In reality, however, there are loopholes like siltation in channels, leakages, missing links etc. It includes all minor, medium and large projects. So we have decided that next year, our focus will be on plugging those leakages and make them more efficient. This will solve problems to a large extent."
The minister said achieving zero open defecation in the state by 2019 was high on the priority. Against the target of three lakh toilets (private and public), construction of more than 50 per cent was already complete, he added.
