The Punjab government will soon install online water quality testing metres at all inlet points of canals and rivers from where water is being supplied for drinking purpose, state minister Razia Sultana said here today.
The water supply and sanitation minister said the purpose of this whole exercise is to ensure that water is treated properly and all toxic heavy metals are removed from the water supplied for drinking purpose.
She said, "It is our statutory and moral responsibility to provide safe drinking water to the people of Punjab."
Water level is fast depleting while the water bodies are getting contaminated. The Punjab government is concerned about cases of contamination of various water bodies in the state, Sultana said.
She said the Congress government is fully aware of its statutory duty and we have in principle decided to install meters at different river and canal outlets from where the water is being extracted for drinking purposes.
The minister directed Principal Secretary Jaspreet Talwar to expedite the process of mapping all canals and rivers, and all inlet points from where water is taken out for drinking purpose.
She said the mapping will help the government assess how many metres are to be installed and at which locations.
At a meeting here, Talwar informed the minister that two water testing laboratories at SAS Nagar and Patiala have been accredited by the National Board of Accreditation of Labs (NABL) and soon one more advanced laboratories equipped with facilities for analyzing heavy metals and other containments will be set up in Amritsar.
To streamline and to make the process of water testing easy, three more laboratories are being upgraded, Sultana said, adding, "With this we will have six state-of-the-art, hi-tech upgraded laboratories in Punjab to conduct sampling of water.
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