Sultanpur Lodhi : Water Supply and Sanitation Department implements comprehensive plant to provide drinking water and sanitation facilities
Sultanpur Lodhi, November 10, 2019 :
For the 550 th Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak Devji, the Government of Punjab is organizing ‘Parkash Parv’ in Sultanpur Lodhi, Kapurthala district, Punjab from 1 st to 20 th November 2019. Department of Water Supply and Sanitation (DWSS) has put together a comprehensive plan to provide clean drinking water and sanitation facilities in 19 nos. parking sites with total area in excess of 500 acres, 70 nos. Langar sites spread across 200 acres and within the MC limits of Sultanpur Lodhi. Devotees have been highly appreciative of the water supply and sanitation facilities put together by DWSS, under the guidance of Smt. Razia Sultana, Cabinet Minister, Department of Water Supply & Sanitation and Smt. Jaspreet Talwar, IAS, Secretary Department of Water Supply & Sanitation, Punjab.
For the drinking water supply outside MC limits, the department has setup 8 nos. tube wells with pipeline network, chlorination and allied machinery. A well-equipped Mobile Laboratory Van has been deployed for 24/7 Water Quality Surveillance of the drinking water supply. This is being carried out to ensure the drinking water standards are maintained across the Mela area within and outside the MC limits. For the storage and distribution of drinking water supply, 5000-liter HDPE Water Tanks (131 nos.) have been erected at the Parkings and Langars sites. These tanks are placed on a rigid staging (10 feet high) and are either connected to the tubewells through distribution pipelines or the Municipality water distribution network. High quality stainless steel water troughs (107 nos.) are fabricated and deployed at various parking sites and Langars. These units are 10 feet wide with arrangement of 5 taps on both sides.
In the city area, DWSS is providing RO drinking water through Smart water ATMs (10 nos.) and paddle operated stainless-steel drinking water stations (50 nos.) at different locations. Each water ATM has a LED screen and continuously displays the message of water conservation. Additionally, in order to ensure that there is no wastage of potable water, each water station is fitted with pedal to dispense water. Over 1800 temporarily toilets, 1200 urinals, 50 handicap toilets and over 100 bathing units are provided within the city, parking and langar sites for public conveniences. All the Toilets set up by DWSS have impervious septic tanks to protect the groundwater and Holy Bein from contamination. Over 600 cleaning staff are ensuring round the clock operation & maintenance of these toilets. Special odor control measures have put into place to suppress the odor as well as reduce the water consumption for managing the sullage. For the collection and transportation of 2.5 MLD sludge/septage from the tent cities and the temporary toilet units within and outside city limits, DWSS has ensured provision of 66 dedicated vehicles for the cesspool operations.
Deployed vehicles (66 nos.) are currently working round-the-clock and are transporting the sludge to the STP at Makhu. 33 additional vehicles have been kept on standby to cater to the anticipated surge in the number of pilgrims/devotees. As per subsequent requirement, there is planned provision to discharge the sludge at the STPs at Zira and Nakodar. GPS devices are installed in all the cesspool vehicles and continuously monitored from the central control room. A mobile app is developed for the realtime monitoring of the water supply and sanitation facilities provided for the event. Feedback and observations recorded are monitored for all the sites through central DWSS control room.
Dedicated training has been imparted to the on-site DWSS officials and awareness among pilgrims has been created on the importance of menstrual hygiene management. Additionally, eight Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) training experts have been deployed for the training of all the toilet cleaning staff and behavior change related communication to the pilgrims. Signages and messages have been put around each toilet cluster to convey the importance of health, hygiene and water conservation. Under the stewardship of Sh. Mohd. Ishfaq, IAS, Additional Secretary, DWSS, Sh. S.K. Jain, Chief Engineer (Planning, Designing and QA), DWSS and Sh. Anil Bansal, Chief Engineer (North), DWSS, a well-structured plan to provide 24/7 clean drinking water and Open Defecation Free (ODF) event is being successfully implemented in Sultanpur Lodhi.