Govt misses deadline on providing water to its schools

The Delhi government’s project to ensure drinking water facility in all its schools has missed its October 2 deadline.

The government had in August identified 220 schools which lack drinking water facility, following which it had set a three-month deadline to provide high-quality water connections at these schools by October 2, as a mark of respect to Mahatma Gandhi.

However, even though three government departments are co-ordinating to make the project a success, the water facility has not reached any of the schools yet, owing to some “technical” issues.

Out of the 220 schools, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), till now, has sanctioned 105 water connections and the funds for the same were released by the Department of Education (DoE) only last week.

According to a feasibility study conducted by DJB, the connections could be provided in 205 schools as the board doesn’t have its reach in the rest of the 15 schools.

“There was some time taken to conduct the feasibility study in all the 220 schools. Sanction for 105 schools has been given and funds have been released. The sanction for the rest of the 100 schools will soon be given,” a senior government official said.

However, the work of laying water connections has not been started in any of the schools yet. One of the reasons could be multiplicity of agencies.

“The DJB’s connection will be upto the school’s boundary wall and the internal system of developing a storage and an outlet facility has to be developed by the PWD,” another official said.

The Education Department has given Rs 2,600 crore to the DJB for the project till now.
Directions were issued to the Delhi Jal Board by its chairperson and minister-in-charge for the department of water, Kapil Mishra in August to ensure drinking water facility in schools with non-existent or poor connections. 

The move to improve infrastructure in government schools was seen as significant as absence of clean drinking water and toilet facilities happen to be the major problems faced by the government school students even in the capital.

“The project has been followed aggresively till now and the deadline was missed due to some technical issues. We will make sure the work is completed in next 15 days,” the official said.

The state government had recently also tied up with Rotary Club for revamping government schools by upgrading sanitation and strengthening basic infrastructure facilities like drinking water and toilets.