The government has undertaken a mega project worth Tk800 crore to ensure safe drinking water for the rural people across the country.
The approval was given at the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) meeting with Prime Minster Sheikh Hasina in the chair at the NEC conference room in the city yesterday.
“Once the project is implemented in the rural areas, the coverage of arsenic-free safe rural water supply will be increased to 88% from the existing 74%,” said Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal while briefing the journalists after the meeting in the capital.
Of the total project cost, over Tk2011 crore will come from the government exchequer while the rest of around Tk25 crore will come from the involved public agencies’ own fund.
Kamal said the government, however, wanted to raise the coverage of this safe drinking water to 100%.
The main project activities include-construction of rain water harvesting, setting up of some 7,000 non-deep tube wells, 12,000 Tara non-deep tube wells, some 200 pond excavation schemes and construction of some 300 community-based arsenic iron removal units.
The Department of Public Health and Engineering (DPHE) under the Local Government Division will implement the project by December 2019 at all the rural areas across the country.
In the early 90s, arsenic was detected in the underground water and with the passage of time arsenic was found at 30% non-deep tube wells across the country, which led the reduction of countrywide safe drinking water coverage to 74%. As a result, supply of safe drinking water in the rural areas fell under threat.
Besides the above project, Ecnec also approved six projects involving Tk2, 037 crore.
A project titled “Waste Management and Improvement of Public Services Project” got the Ecnec nod.
The project worth around Tk85 crore will be implemented by Dhaka South City Corporation within December 2016.
The project aims at strengthening the local services of Dhaka South City Corporation through proper maintenance, management, and effective machineries, strengthening the efficiency of the existing plant and machineries of Dhaka South City Corporation, enhancing the efficiency of waste management and providing qualitative services to the city dwellers.
Quoting the Prime Minister, Kamal said: “Prime Minister in the meeting has asked the LGRD Ministry to form a coordination committee headed by LGRD Minister to effectively use the expensive and sophisticated machineries of both Dhaka South and North city corporations.’’
The meeting also approved the establishment of “Manikganj Medical College and 250-bed Hospital’’ at Manikganj Sadar with over Tk615 crore to be implemented by June 2019.
“The countrywide number of medical colleges is 101 including 71 private medical colleges and 30 public medical colleges. Besides, the number of nurses in the country is 25,000 against the demand of some 2,50,000 skilled nurses,” said Kamal.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the authorities concerned to conduct a mapping before setting up medical colleges in the country, considering the availability of doctors and students.
The other projects approved in the meeting are-BSCIC Plastic Industrial Estate with Tk133 crore and Academic and Physical Infrastructures Development of Chittagong University (2nd revised) with over Tk297 crore.
