Chandigarh, September 12: The Water Supply & Sanitation Department (WSSD) has been entrusted the important task of making the 550th Parkash Purb of Guru Nanak Dev event celebration “Open Defecation Free”.
A spend of Rs 13.65 crore has been allocated to the WSSD to ensure putting in place huge infrastructure and manpower which include, setting of temporary toilets, urinals, bathing units, deployment of cleaning workforce, proving clean drinking water in and out of the municipal limits, ensuring the sanitation and management of garbage.
Minister for Water Supply & Sanitation Razia Sultana inspected the progress of various ongoing projects in Sultanpur Lodhi.
In a press communiqué, Razia Sultana said Water Supply & Sanitation Department had been entrusted the responsibility to provide 24×7 clean drinking water at eight parking sites spread over an area of more than 500 acres and 12 Langar sites spread on area over 100 acres.
She said eight tubewells will be laid, of which 4 have already been installed. She said HDPE Water Tanks of 5000 litre Capacity would be erected throughout the event area for water storage.
The Minister said that for drinking water supply within the city limits, the Water Supply & Sanitation Department would provide water ATMs and stainless-steel troughs at 35 different locations. Likewise, for drinking water supply outside the MC limits in 8 Parking and 12 Langar sites, 107 high-quality stainless-steel water troughs were being fabricated. Each water trough would be 10 feet wide with arrangement of 5 taps on both sides.
She said that Water Supply & Sanitation Department had planned to make this whole event Open Defecation Free (ODF) with zero discharge into water bodies, zero contact of waste with human hands and digital monitoring of all the components would be done to ensure compliance.
Razia Sultana said around 2000 temporarily toilets and 1500 urinals would be installed across the event for public conveniences within the city, parking and langar sites. Additionally, 125 bathing units and 50 special toilet units for divyaang would also be set up.
She said that over 1100 workers of cleaning staff would ensure round-the-clock operation & maintenance of the toilet units for the entire duration of the event. She said that dedicated efforts were being put into place for odour management and protection of the groundwater from contamination.
She said that 100 percent sewage generated during the event would be transported to the existing Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) at Makhu and Zira for treatment and safe disposal. She said the department would also carry sensitization campaign during the event under Punjab Government’s ‘Mission Tandarust Punjab’ and for this purpose display boards over 30000 square feet area would be erected which would bear behavior communication messages and messages for promotion of health and hygiene.
The Water Supply & Sanitation Minister said that Web based monitoring dashboard was being developed for real time monitoring of water supply and sanitation facilities at the event. Any shortfall in service delivery would be rectified within a maximum timeframe of 3 hours.
