Amritsar: Contaminated water supply negates govt’s aim of potable water for schools

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 27

Last month, Punjab School Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains directed that clean drinking water be provided to students in all government schools across the state. The announcement was made keeping in view the risk of an outbreak of waterborne diseases during the rainy season.

That said, a majority of elementary as well as senior secondary schools in the district depend on tap water supply for drinking water purposes. Most schools do not have ROs or even water coolers installed and depend on submersible connections or MC water supply to get potable water. It is to be noted that in the last two months, with the onset of monsoon, several areas in the district have complained of contaminated water supply from MC, with overflowing sewerage getting mixed.

Government Elementary School, Nanngli, Jagdev Kalan and Chheharta and many other areas lacked ROs and water coolers in the school premises. Apart from that, at Nanngli premises of GES, that has a student strength of 729, a kuccha (mud bed) ground gets waterlogged during rains, posing risk of vector-borne diseases. “The teachers had contributed from their own pocket to lay a bed of bricks over the muddy ground so that there is at least a levelled floor. But it needs to be concretised for which the requirement for funds have been sent,” shared a teacher of the school, without wanting to be named. Similarly, the management of GES, New Model Town, Chheharta, reached out to a non-profit organisation, Voice of Amritsar, to get an RO installed in the school premises as funds for the same had been delayed by the Education Department.

A teacher from the GES, Model Town, said that school heads and school management committees should conduct routine water sampling, keep drinking water tanks covered, regularly clean and chlorinate tanks. “These measures only ensure minimal quality control when the water from main MC water supply is contaminated, which is the case in areas like Chheharta, Naraingarh, Wadali, Gobindpura and others,” she said.

Schools reaching out to NGOs

Seenu Arora, founder-member of Voice of Amritsar, a non-profit based NGO in Amritsar, said that several government schools and institutions have been reaching out to them as they launched their Mission Clean Drinking Water for Children, providing ROs and water coolers to these institutions. “We have installed ROs and UV filters at eight government schools in Amritsar and a government college in Tarn Taran. We are getting more queries from government schools in rural belts and we are raising funds for that,” he said.

District Education Officer (Elementary) Karamjit Singh said that all government schools get development funds every year to carry out maintenance work, under which the requirement for installing ROs and filters are also covered. “These are called composite grants, which every school receives annually, ranging between Rs 25,000-Rs 50,000, depending on student strength and school requirement. These funds are used for whitewashing, maintenance of building and upkeep of toilets. Side by side, funds for installation of devices as per school requirement also comes. Sometimes, the schools have to reach out to voluntary organisations as well,” he said.

HC order on ROs

In 2014, the Government of India launched Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), to make provision for tap water supply to every rural household. A special campaign was launched under JJM to make provision for tap water supply in government schools, Anganwadi centres and ashramshalas (tribal residential schools) for drinking and cooking of mid-day meals, hand washing and piped water supply in toilets on priority. So far, 22,230 government schools in Punjab have been covered under this till the year 2023. On a pertinent note, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had in 2015 noticed that water samples in 2,922 government schools in the state had failed quality tests. The High Court had then directed that RO (reverse osmosis) systems be installed in all schools immediately to supply safe drinking water.