Singapore to help Bihar tackle drinking water shortage

Singapore will help the Bihar government tackle the severe water crisis in the state, officials said here. Experts from the Public Utility Board (PUB) of Singapore will use latest water management and technology for the purpose.

"A team of experts from Singapore will visit Bihar to study the problem of drinking water and would suggest to sort it out. The team of PUB would visit half a dozen of Bihar's cities including Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga to study the ground situation related to problem of drinking water," Bihar's Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) Minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey said.

"After studying the problem of drinking water, the Singapore team would submit a report to the state government with detailed plans and programmes to get rid of it," he added.

Choubey finalised the plan while attending the Singapore International Water Week June 22-26. He told IANS that he had discussions with experts of PUB about the problem of drinking water in the state and they promised to help.

A large part of Bihar is facing scarcity of drinking water due to depletion of groundwater after delay in monsoon and unprecedented heat for over a month.

Official sources in the PHED said that millions of people in Gaya, Aurangabad, Jehanabad, Munger, Rohtas, Kaimur, Nawada and Bhagalpur districts are facing acute water scarcity as hand-pumps, wells and other water bodies have dried up.

In Gaya, a town about 100 km from here, people are in big trouble because after the depletion of ground water, hand-pumps have gone dry. "It is pathetic for us to live in Gaya town, we have to run since morning till late night in search of water," said Ejaj Ahmad, a resident of Gewal Bigha in Gaya.

According to latest figures released by Bihar State Groundwater Directorate, the water level has gone down by 30-50 feet in several districts. "The water level has gone drastically down at several places in Gaya, Bhagalpur, Munger and Kaimur," said official sources in the directorate.

After wells and ponds dried up in rural areas, people in Aurangabad, Gaya, Rohtas and Kaimur districts were forced to sell their cattle at throwaway prices. "We sold five cattle at cheapest rate after we failed to arrange water for them," said Shiv Prasad, a farmer in Aurangabad.

Last updated on Jun 30^th, 2009 at 17:07 pm IST--IANS