SHILLONG, Aug 29 � Cherrapunjee�s thirst for water would be satiated by October this year with the commissioning of a long-awaited drinking water project.
Every winter, residents of the area trek for miles down hundred of metres to falls to fetch water. During the monsoons the area receives not less than 11,430 millimetres of rainfall on an average.
But, in the absence of water management schemes most of the rain run down the hills to the valley into Bangladesh. In winter, the water scarcity becomes acute and without a dedicated water supply scheme the problem increases.
Minister in-charge Public Health Engineering Prestone Tynsong informed that the Greater Cherrapunjee Water Supply Scheme would be commissioned this October and would bring huge relief for the residents of the area.
�Every household would receive piped water once the project is commissioned this October,� Tynsong said after an annual PHE engineers� review meet here.
The project is a Centrally-sponsored scheme and is being constructed at a cost of Rs 4.13 crore. The water is being drawn from a stream at Wahlyngngai near Dai�thlen falls � which is a major tourist attraction of the area.
The project would provide drinking water not just in Cherrapunjee, but right up to the sub-divisional headquarters� fringe in Mawmluh and other places.
The PHE department is also setting up water treatment plant and a laboratory in the area. In fact, the department would set up water testing laboratories in all the sub-divisional headquarters of the State, the Minister said.
The department would also take up cleaning of the water reservoir every quarter after reports of deteriorating water quality in the State supplied by the department.
�We would construct the laboratories in the sub-division headquarters and the reservoirs would be cleaned quarterly so that water quality is maintained,� Tynsong added.
Meanwhile, the PHE department has targeted to provide drinking water in 760 habitations across the State this fiscal, including 213 Lower Primary Schools and 63 Integrated Child Development Service centres, at a total cost of Rs 120 crore.
