The State Government has always worked towards achieving the national goal of providing potable drinking water to all especially the people residing in the rural areas. Since water is required for all sorts of activities such as farming, domestic, industrial, recreation etc it has always been the vision of the State Government to provide adequate, safe and clean supply of water at all times, ensuring too that it is conveniently and equally available to each and every rural household. The maintenance of the existing water supply system and conservation of the water sources also is given the topmost priority. Two water testing laboratories has been set up in the State, one is located at Gangtok in East District and the other at Karfectar, in South district. The laboratory has been set up to check the contamination of water as contaminated water adversely affects the health of all consumers. As per the test reports of the laboratory, the water source in the state does not have any chemical contamination.
With a view to provide adequate, safe and potable drinking water to the rural people where water supply scheme has not yet been provided and as well as to provide the prescribed rate of water supply in areas where the rate of supply is less than 40 lpcd, the Ministry of Drinking Water Supply has introduced National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) since 2009-10 incorporating a decentralized approach through Panchayati Raj Institutions and community involvement from planning to implementation, operation and maintenance of the water supply schemes.
The current habitation status of the state with consumption of 40 lpcd is as given under:
Total habitations – 2084 habitations
Fully covered habitations – 718 habitations
Partially covered habitations – 1366 habitations
Uncovered habitations – Nil
Target for 2015-16 – 45
The target for the coverage of rural water supply schemes for the year 2015-16 was 45 habitations, out of which schemes were completed in 65 habitations.
During the year 2015-16 no new water supply schemes were sanctioned. Minor repair of water supply schemes, two in East and one in West Districts of Sikkim were taken up.
The component wise financial expenditure for the year 2015-16 is as given below:
- Programme fund – Rs 1540.25 lakh
- Support fund – Rs 28.37 lakhs
- WQM&SS – Rs 11.64 lakhs