STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Assam has been lagging far behind the rest of the nation in providing potable water to its rural habitations. It is supplying drinking water to only 55,171 of 88,076 rural habitations in the State, registering just 62.6 percent full coverage against 81.03 percent at the national level.
Rural drinking water supply is a State subject. For improving the coverage of adequate and safe drinking water to the rural population, the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti provides technical and financial assistance through a centrally-sponsored scheme ‘National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP)’. The programme was launched on April 1, 2009.
The Public Health Engineering (PHE) is the nodal department for implementing NRDWP in Assam, where the programme has long been in the doldrums.
The 62.6 per cent habitations covered under the scheme in the State has a rural population of 1.73 crore. Altogether 23,137 rural habitations in the State have been partially covered under the scheme. The percentage of partially covered rural habitations in Assam is 26.26 as against the national percentage of 15.61.
What is even more pathetic is that the drinking water being used in as many as 9,786 rural habitations in the State are quality affected because of the contamination of fluoride, arsenic, iron and other heavy metals. Insofar as contaminated water is concerned, the situation is worse in the State with the contamination of 11.09 per cent rural habitations against the national percentage of 3.36. In fact, on this front, Assam is next to only West Bengal where the problem of water contamination is the worst.
The districts in Assam that have performed poorly in fully covering rural habitations under the drinking water scheme are Majuli with a coverage of only 172 of 556 habitations; Udalguri (298 of 2420 habitations); South Salmara/Mankachar (333 of 577 habitations); Dima Hasao (433 of 1146 habitations); Bongaigaon (696 of 2332 habitations); and West Karbi Anglong (458 of 1125 habitations).