Women to Power Mission Bhagiratha

Hyderabad March 7: The Telangana govt is now keen on women to help in making its Rs 40,000 crore Mission Bhagiratha project a grand success.

With a whopping 40 tmc feet of drinking water to be supplied through taps to all the households in the state as part of the Mission, the TRS government has decided to train members of women self-help groups to educate consumers on water management with the focus on "not wasting a drop".

Though there are nearly 50 lakh SHG women members in Telangana, only one or two from each Gram Panchayat will be selected for training. The training module is being prepared with focus on issues of managing water properly as it will be supplied daily as part of Mission Bhagiratha.

It is true that even educated people behave irrationally and throw previous days water to refill water fresh. This has to be curbed and prevented somehow.

In addition to maintaining hygiene, the main focus will be on creating awareness among consumers not to waste water.

"Usually, people store more water than actually required in pots and other utensils in the house. It has been observed in Hyderabad and elsewhere in the state where alternate day water supply is being given that people throw the stored unused water for a fresh refill when alternate day supply resumes. This results in lot of wastage of water and we don't want this to happen with Mission Bhagiratha supplies in rural areas and towns," said one of the consultants working on the Bhagiratha project.

Sources said it was chief secretary S P Singh's idea to involve women SHG members to create awareness as they number nearly 50 lakh in all in the state. Even if few of them are trained, they can in turn train the other members who can launch the awareness campaign right from their home.

"The target is to supply 100 litres water person per day (LPCD) in rural areas and 150 LPCD in urban areas. In such a scenario, it is all the more important to take up a campaign and educate consumers not to waste water," Rural Water Supply (Mission Bhagiratha) Chief Engineer Mr Vijay Paul told TOI.