Not to be Published/Broadcast before 5 April, 2010

          Hamirpur District has taken a great leap forward in the facelift of thousands of traditional water sources in all 229 Gram Panchayats through Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Scheme (MNREGA) in the year, 2009-10 in the district with the active community involvement of Panchayati Raj institutions and technical support of Block Development offices.  666 traditional water sources had been repaired, re-stored and rejuvenated at a cost of Rs. 257.39 lacs  in the district and that too in a short span of six months. This has benefitted 38145 household families of 666 villages in the district. This initiative has not only refurbished and rejuvenated the traditional water sources of the district but also has provided 1,25,515 mandays of employment to the local people. Efforts were made to integrate drinking water with health sanitation and employment and this strategy has yielded good results.

          The Government of Himachal Pradesh have been laying utmost thrust on conservation and rejuvenation of traditional water sources as they are the primary source of supply of drinking water to the thousands of people at the grass root level.

          District Administration Hamirpur keeping with the lieu convened a meeting of all the stakeholders and decided that almost all the traditional water sources of the district i.e. boulies, wells and khatries in the villages on common land should be covered under this project. Instructions were issued to the local Panchayat Secretaries and Sahayaks to personally visit each and every traditional water source and identify its specific requirement of repair and restoration. It was emphasized that not only the traditional water sources be cleaned and repaired, but two other things – laying of roof and fixing of gates – should also be done.

          A total number of 666 traditional water sources comprising of 380 boulies, 134 wells and 152 khatries were identified in six Development Blocks Hamirpur, Bamson, Sujanpur, Nadaun, Bhoranj and Bijhari in district Hamirpur. A total shelf of Rs.257.39 lacs was approved in one go by the Deputy Commissioner through MNREGA for execution through the concerned panchayats. A time frame of 6 months to complete this entire work before 31st March, 2010 was given and regular monitoring of the progress was made to ensure that these water sources are refurbished before the onset of summer season 2010 when the drinking water availability is at a premium which is dealt with by deploying water tankers. Some suggestive designs for the boulies etc. were procured from the Irrigation & Public Health department and handed over to the panchayats to provide them technical assistance.  

            Apart from repair of 380 boulies, 134 wells and 152 khatries in the district, gates have been fixed in 235 boulies, 72 wells and 117 khatries totaling 424 gates. The advantage of fixing gates on these water sources are to prevent the entry of animals etc. into these sources which pollutes the drinking water; and also to check unscrupulous and wasteful utilization of precious drinking water. The benefit of laying roofs on boulies and wells is to prevent tree leaves and other such kind of materials to enter and deposit in such sources. Bamson block which was traditionally considered as the most water scarcity block in the district, was given utmost thrust and resultantly 200 water sources out of total 666 in the district have been rejuvenated in this block itself. 112 traditional water sources in Bijhari block, 107 in Hamirpur, 85 in Sujanpur, 82 in Nadaun and 80 in Bhoranj block were also rejuvenated. A total of 38145 households out of 94811 households of the district, i.e. 40% of the households will be directly benefitted by this initiative in 666 villages of 229 gram panchayats. The local panchayats and communities were motivated not only to associate themselves with this project but also to maintain them in future also from sustainability point of view. A separate provision of water for animals and for cleaning clothes has been made in most of the boulies so as to restrict the water in main boulies strictly for drinking purposes.

          A look at any of such traditional water sources now reflects the picture of change as now all these traditional water sources are full of clean drinking water in hygienic conditions. This will not only improve sanitation but also the general health of the common man. The local villagers are now happy because now they have access to safe and clean drinking water in their vicinity. 

Issued by:

Director

Information & Public Relations,

Himachal Pradesh, Shimla-171002 

 cases.