86 districts in Andhra Pradesh, 52 districts in Madhya Pradesh are affected by fluoride.
Highlight
- Andhra Pradesh has 86 fluoride affected habitations
- Karnataka’s eastern districts facing water pollution due to uranium
- This was mentioned during the regional review meeting of JJM, SBM on 5th March
Andhra Pradesh has 86 fluoride-affected habitations and Madhya Pradesh 52, while eastern districts of Karnataka face water pollution due to uranium, according to a regional review meeting of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) and Swachh. Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM) on Saturday.
A regional meeting was held in Bengaluru to take stock of the JJM and SBM plans for Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and the Union Territories of Puducherry and Lakshadweep.
A release from the Ministry of Jal Shakti said that Union Jal Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat addressed the meeting, which was attended by ministers and top bureaucrats from these states and union territories.
“It has come to our notice that there are 86 fluoride affected habitations in Andhra Pradesh and 52 in Madhya Pradesh which deserve immediate remedial action. Similarly, there is information that in eastern districts of Karnataka, water contamination due to uranium has been reported .
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Shekhawat said, “The ministry is committed to provide drinking water of a prescribed quality to every rural household. It will provide all funds and technical assistance to overcome these problems.”
A total of 19 aspirational districts out of 117 fall in the participating states. As of March 1, Telangana has provided tap water connections to all its three aspirational districts, while in other states, the coverage ranges from 19 per cent to 52 per cent.
“There is a need to act fast so that the people living in the area can get clean drinking water soon,” Shekhawat said.
So far 92,366 Village Water and Sanitation Committees have been constituted under the program and 82,646 Village Action Plans have been developed in the participating States and Union Territories of Puducherry.
There are 588 water testing laboratories, out of which 136 are NABL accredited. These laboratories are open to the public where they can take water samples and get them tested at nominal rates.
In these participating six states and two union territories, over 2.40 lakh women have been trained on how to test water quality using field test kits. These women are part of a five-woman monitoring committee, which has been tasked with repeatedly checking sources and distribution points and reporting in case of any contamination, so that immediate remedial action can be initiated, the ministry release said. can be done.
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