Satish Kumar, Ranchi:
Even after 23 years of formation of the state, complete success has not been achieved in quenching the thirst of the people. There has been no success in quenching thirst at the national level. At the national level, the water requirement has been estimated at 135 liters per person in urban areas and 40 liters per person in rural areas. After the formation of the state, thousands of schemes were started to provide pure drinking water to all the houses, but till now success has been achieved in providing pure drinking water to only about 45 percent houses. Even now 55 percent of the state’s population is dependent on hand pumps, wells, rivers and other natural sources for water.
The state government has been able to supply water through pipeline to 28 lakh houses out of 61.72 lakh houses. Here in Jharkhand, the natural availability of drinking water as a surface source is not much. Water is available for 12 months in only six to seven rivers in the state. The remaining rivers bring rain. Due to the geological structure being rocky, the availability of water is much less in comparison to the plain areas. In such a situation, the task of providing tap water to the remaining 33 lakh houses from the available resources in the state is challenging. According to the Jal Jeevan Mission (Har Ghar Jal) released by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, pure drinking water is to be provided to all the houses in the state by the year 2024.