Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday said his government was adopting an integrated approach to water management to meet drinking water, irrigation and industrial requirements.
Naidu, along with deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan launched the Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0–Amarajeevi Jaladhara programme at Kothapalli village in Proddatur constituency of YSR Kadapa district, aimed at providing safe drinking water to every rural household and addressing drinking water shortages on a permanent basis.
“The principal objective of the Jal Jeevan Mission is to ensure sustainable drinking water supplies from permanent water sources. Under the programme, the government plans to provide drinking water connections to an additional 27.36 lakh rural households, while strengthening and stabilising the existing network serving 61.60 lakh household tap connections, at a cost of ₹ 30,156 crore across the state. Speaking at a public meeting after launching the scheme, Naidu said the programme would cover 24,601 habitations and include the construction of 13,075 overhead storage reservoirs, expansion of water supply infrastructure and laying of around 77,000 km of pipelines. The chief minister said that out of nearly 95 lakh rural households in the state, around 62 lakh households already had tap connections. The objective under Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0 was to extend drinking water facilities to another 27 lakh families, he said. The previous government spent only around ₹ 2,600 crore on the scheme in the State despite the availability of significant central assistance,” he said. Stating that his government was adopting an integrated approach towards the water needs of the state, Naidu said the state government had spent ₹ 24,000 crore on irrigation projects in the last two years. The government planned to take up 36 irrigation projects at a cost of ₹ 35,000 crore over the next three years, he claimed.
“It will ultimately provide safe drinking water to around 3.27 crore people,” he said. Speaking on the occasion, Pawan Kalyan said it was the responsibility of the government to resolve the problems of people irrespective of which region they belong to or which party they support.
