Port Blair, Sept 29: Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma, Member of Parliament, A&N Administration has requested the Minister of Jal Skhakti, Govt. of India, New Delhi to include Andaman & Nicobar Islands under Jal Jeevan Mission which aims to provide safe and adequate trapped water connections to all households by 2024 and allocate Rs.2000 crore to A&N Islands to ensure timely completion of the Flat Bay Water project under Jal Jeevan Mission to provide relief to the public from water deficit.
He informed the Minister that Andaman & Nicobar Islands are prone to recurring water crisis every summer and due to failure of Northeast monsoon, the water crisis has worsened owing to non replenishment of local bodies and reservoirs. In South Andaman district, Dhanikhari dam is the lone source catering to the water requirements of urban, sub-urban and rural areas. This dam level being 67 meters cannot sustain the requirement continuously for more than six months in the absence of rainfall. The increasing populations along with spike in number of hotels and resorts have only enlarged the requirement of water leading to fast receding of water level in Dhanikhari Dam. However, there are scores of localized pockets like pounds and small reservoirs which also cater to the requirements of local areas. But many of the ponds are silted heavily resulting in dismal carrying capacity. In the past, the A&N Administration had conceived a number of water projects in view of augmenting the supply such as Flat Bay, for which the DPR was done by WAPCSOC in 1998 but the project still remain on paper.
In this regard, Mr. Sharma drawn kind attention of the Minister in which he said that he already raised this matter in the Lok Sabha during Zero hour on 20th September, 2020 demanding therein to sanction Rs.2000 crore additional fund to A&N Islands for augmentation of Flat Bay water project which would meet the requirement of water for 3 (three) lakh population for future 10 years.
Therefore, Mr. Sharma, MP has now requested the Minister to include the A&N Islands in the Jal Jeevan Mission which aims to provide safe and adequate trapped water connection to all household and the existing water sources like ponds and resources in A&N Islands may be de-silted at the earliest. To meet over all requirements for resolving the water deficit problems in A&N Islands, the MP requested the Minister to allocate Rs.2000 crore to ensure timely completion of Flat Bay water project under Jal Jeevan Mission so far concerned to A&N Islands which would provide a great relief to the Islanders.
