Garhwal Post Bureau
US Nagar, 20 Jul: Secretary, Drinking Water, Shailesh Bagauli conducted an on-site inspection of various rural and urban drinking water schemes in Rudrapur and Gadarpur blocks of Udham Singh Nagar district on Saturday. He assessed the quality of infrastructure, the status of Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs), and the overall efficiency of water supply.
The inspection included evaluation of a 300 mm diameter, 210-metre-deep tubewell with a 500 LPM discharge capacity, and a 100 KL overhead tank with 17-metre staging. The construction quality was found to be satisfactory. A total of 314 households have been provided FHTC connections under this scheme. The Secretary personally visited five homes to verify water supply timings, pressure, and quality — all of which were found to be adequate.
The Raipur Single Village Drinking Water Scheme
features a 300 mm diameter, 200-meter-deep tubewell with a 700 LPM capacity and a 150 KL overhead tank with 20-meter staging. It currently serves 532 families. During the visit, some villagers reported pipeline leakages. Secretary Bagauli directed the Executive Engineer to conduct an immediate inspection, rectify the issues, and submit a compliance report to the headquarters within one week.
The Sarovarnagar Multi-Village Drinking Water Scheme, with a 300 mm diameter, 193-meter-deep tubewell with 500 LPM capacity and a 100 KL overhead tank, was found to be of good quality. The scheme has provided FHTC connections to 521 families. It was noted that 25 families had earlier refused connections. Secretary Bagauli instructed officials to make special efforts to include these families and complete the task within a month.
Reviewing progress under the AMRUT-I scheme, Secretary Bagauli noted that many consumers in two zones had yet to take water connections. He instructed the Executive Engineer to coordinate with the Municipal Commissioner and launch a targeted awareness campaign to educate the public about the benefits of piped water supply.
He emphasised regular water quality testing and public education on the health and hygiene advantages of piped supply over handpumps. Expressing dissatisfaction over pending works under AMRUT-I, the Secretary directed officials to submit a detailed, time-bound action plan to the headquarters within one week.
The Secretary also inspected the 25 KLD capacity Fecal Sludge Treatment Plant (FSTP) in Rudrapur city, where 10–12 sludge tankers are treated daily. The operational standards were found to be satisfactory. He directed officials to calculate the estimated daily sludge generation based on the city’s population and septic tank emptying frequency and compare it with actual inflow at the plant. If a gap is found, a practical plan must be devised to bridge it, he asserted.
Local engineers Bishan Kumar, Tarun Sharma, Sushil Bisht, Lalit Pandey, Chetan Chauhan, Ajay Srivastava, along with public representatives and local villagers were present during the inspections.
