Once struggling for water, Shahjahanpur now tops in tap connections

SHAHJAHANPUR: From being a district where villagers were forced to trek miles to fetch potable water to topping the country in providing water connections, Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur has come a long way.

With concerted efforts of authorities and support of local population, 88,823 houses till October have got clean drinking water through installation of taps under the “Jal Jeevan Mission”. With 28,653 taps installed in October alone, the district has secured first place in the country in providing tap water connections under the central government project. Earlier, villagers used to often complain that hand pumps were installed at far off places and most hand pumps were non-functional. Moreover, about 150 people were dependent on a single pump. Despite being surrounded by five rivers -- Ganga, Ram Ganga, Bahubal, Khannaut and Gaara -- people in the district were deprived of potable water. District magistrate Umesh Pratap Singh said he found villagers waiting in long queues near hand pumps, after which he convened a meeting with Jal Jeevan Mission officials to address the issue.

Neha Shukla of Sujatpur village, who has benefitted from the initiative, said that household chores used to begin only after her father fetched water from a far-off place. “Now, with the scheme introduced by PM Narendra Modi, we have got a tap in our house and we are getting pure water,” she said. PTI