Old Malda municipality submits water treatment plant project

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Jan. 14: With a view to resolve an acute drinking water crisis, the Old Malda municipality (OMM) has submitted a surface water treatment plant project to the Central government, through the state government, under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban National Mission (JNUNM) project. The Municipal Engineering Department (MED) has estimated that Rs 18.32 crore would be needed for the surface water drinking water plant project. “We are eagerly awaiting the sanctioning of this project from the Centre. The state has cleared the project and has forwarded it to the Centre in December last year," said Mr Biswanath Sukul, the chairman of the CPI-M led Old Malda municipality. It may be noted that after two decades the CPI-M came to power in OMM, when the Congress leaders could not correctly file their nominations before last election and all the nomination papers submitted by the Congress were cancelled. According to the civic body chief, MED has earmarked Lolabag area for using water from the Mahananda river for this water treatment plant, which will cover the main Old Malda town, including Mangalbari area along the National Highway-34. “The Old Malda municipality can cover only 25 per cent of its area at present, based on its population and supply of drinking water based on the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department,” Mr Sukul said. Out of 17 wards, only six wards (from 1 to 6) are under the drinking water project based on ground level water supplied by the PHE. Besides this, PHE has two pumping stations for other from Ward no 7 to 17. The residents of OMM of Wards no 15 and 16 have been using drinking water from the rural scmheme of PHE. The rest of the uncovered areas rely on hand tube wells. In the dry season, the residents of OMM, rural and added municipal areas face an acute drinking water crisis depending on the ground level water. The OMM civic body hopes that if the Centre grants its surface water project by March this year, MED would be able to start the project soon.