Nashik tops in state in implementing Centre scheme to provide tap water

Nashik: The district has topped in the state in the completion of works to set up individual tap connections to all rural households under the Jal Jeevan Mission.Nashik district has completed 65% of the works targeted by the water supply department of the zilla parishad.The water supply department has completed 797 out of 1,222 schemes in as many villages and hamlets. Each scheme includes finding the source of water, construction of overhead tanks and then setting up a network of pipelines to ensure tapped water reaches homes. Each scheme can lead to anywhere between 20 and 200 water connections, depending on the size of the network."Work on the 797 schemes have been completed despite the fact that there were challenges in the hilly areas, where the water sources are either far away or too deep," said Sandeep Sonawane, who is in charge of the water supply schemes of Nashik ZP.Within the district, Nandgaon taluka has a completion rate of 92% with 24 of 26 works completed. However, the most number of works were completed in Surgana taluka (99 out of 164 work). Kalwan taluka has completed 83 out of 127 schemes, while Baglan taluka has finished 65 schemes out of its target of 112."In the case of hilly areas like the talukas of Surgana, Trimbakeshwar, Igatpuri and Kalwan, it took longer to carry out the works," said another officer.The officer added that hilly areas also needed more work as houses are scattered over a larger area, and people live in hamlets consisting of five to 10 houses each. Each village has a cluster of five to seven hamlets."Some of these hamlets have water sources nearby, but in other cases, the sources are far. Often, women had to walk 1km to 4km or climb down about 100ft to 300ft to fetch water, even if the distance may be less than 500m. This made fetching water an arduous task. This scheme is a boon for these people," the officer added.