Following the Karnataka High Court order to the State government to make arrangements to provide potable water to all government schools , Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat has chalked out a plan to provide water connection to187 schools in the district.
The government primary and higher primary schools which are dependent on water connection from the Gram Panchayat all these years can heave a sigh of relief, if the scheme is implemented.
Many government schools which are having water connection from the Gram Panchayat at present are prone to several problems, especially shortage of drinking water during power cuts.
With six to 12 hours power cut in the villages, the schools literally struggle to store water as there would not be water supply.
During winter and summer the schools face shortage of water supply in the afternoon when the mid-day meal is offered to children.
Speaking to Deccan Herald Zilla Panchayat Executive Engineer Sathyanarayana S L said that the Zilla Panchayat has selected 187 schools from the district for the project.
As per the project plan, individual water supply units will be developed in the selected schools, along with providing electrification, pipeline and syntax tanks.
As many as 41 schools from Mangalore taluk, 26 from Bantwal taluk, 45 from Belthangady taluk, 46 from Puttur taluk and 2 from Sullia taluk have been identified for having individual water connection, said the Executive Engineer.
He said that the ZP has prepared an action plan of Rs 173.2 lakh which is likely to receive the approval soon.
“The tender process will be called soon and the ZP intends to complete the project in all the 187 schools before March 2012,” he said.
Jalamani scheme
The implementation of the project would also enable the ZP to extend Jalamani scheme to all the schools in the district. Jalamani scheme is a project that provides water filters to the government primary and higher primary schools in the district.
In the last two years, the ZP has provided water filters 412 schools in the district based on three categories.
During the first year, i.e in 2009-10 the water filters were provided to the schools which are having both over head tank and electricity supply, while in the II phase in the year 2009-10 water filters were provided to schools with only over head tank, but no electricity supply. But the schools without overhead tank and electricity supply were not supplied with water.
However with 187 schools getting new water connections, they too could benefit under Jalamani scheme.
ZP Executive Engineer said that they did not make a move to provide water filters to schools without over head tank and electricity supply as it is a costly affair. But with the State government’s project to provide individual water connections to the schools, an additional number of schools will be provided with water filters, he informed.