Japanese team to assess Kharghuli water supply project in Guwahati

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: A team of officials from the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi will visit Guwahati on December 22 next to assess the preliminary work on the proposed water supply project at Kharghuli, which will be funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

A senior official of the Guwahati Jal Board told The Sentinel on Monday that after the assessment by the Japanese delegation, the main work on the project is likely to start in 2023 and the project is expected to be commissioned in 2024.

It may be mentioned that the Guwahati Jal Board has already fixed the application fees to be paid to the board for new water supply connections. This move came after the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) announced that it will stop supplying water to several areas of the city because the relevant water supply schemes are outdated. Consequently, the GMC has asked the Guwahati Jal Board to supply water to these areas and the application fee rates have been fixed in this context.

Earlier this month, the state government had decided to stop the municipal water supply system under the GMC in areas where the JICA water supply projects have been initiated. The decision was taken at a meeting held by the Guwahati Jal Board with Assam's Minister for Housing & Urban Affairs, Ashok Singhal, at Janata Bhawan here.

Following the decision, the Jal Board had urged the citizens to take advantage of domestic water supply connections under the new projects.

According to GMC sources, only 30 per cent of the households of the city have access to potable water supplied by the civic body. The remaining households are dependent either on bore-wells or private water suppliers.

The sources said that due to decades of neglect in improving water supply infrastructure under the GMC, it has become untenable for the civic body to sustain the water supply responsibility. The sources added that in view of the new projects which have been virtually completed under the JICA, the GMC has decided to "outsource" the water supply responsibility to the Guwahati Jal Board.

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