Taps may replace hand pumps in UP

The Rural Development Department (RDD) has suggested community drinking water schemes through pipelines in villages replacing hand pumps. It is preparing a proposal to phase out hand pumps,which will be sent to the Chief Minister’s office for a final decision.

Hand pumps are the most sought after by the villagers. MLAs are flooded with requests for sanctioning hand pumps from their fund in villages. Even the RDD receives numerous applications from MLAs for setting up new hand pumps in their constituencies. As a result,UP now accounts for nearly half the number of hand pumps in the country.

The state has 22.47 lakh hand pumps. Still,the norms that a hand pump can be sanctioned only for a minimum population of 150 and the minimum distance between two hand pumps should be 75 metres are not adhered.

The Union Ministry of Rural Development has written several times to the state government to restrict the number of hand pumps,but to little effect. “MLAs directly approach us for sanctioning hand pumps in their constituencies on grounds that the people now want personalised hand pumps in front of their house,” said a senior official.

The RDD has,therefore,decided to suggest an alternative to hand pumps in form of community water drinking schemes. The project includes a water tank of 5,000 litres and a solar panel to run a mini-motor from a boring. The project can supply running water through taps to nearly 30 families. There is also a provision of manual pumping of water in case there is not adequate sunlight. The total cost of the project is only Rs 5 lakh.

The department has sought help from their Maharashtra counterpart as the project is a big hit in their villages. A team of officials from Maharashtra was in Lucknow and gave a detailed presentation to the department on Tuesday.

The department will encourage the MLAs to sanction the new scheme in their constituencies.