Public Health Engineering

The Public Health Engineering of PWD through its 2 division offices at Udaipur and Belonia is maintaining the piped water in South Tripura district. There are also 6 working PHE Sub-divisions situated at Udaipur (one for urban and one for rural areas), at Amarpur, Belonia and Sabroom both for urban and rural and one at Santirbazar for rural areas. Besides, there is one Rig Sub-division looking after drilling works of deep tube-wells in the entire district.

There are 193 deep tube wells, functioning in both urban and rural areas to cater requirement of drinking water, which covers more than 51% of the population of South Tripura district.

Piped water supply schemes mainly comprises of deep tube-well sources for both urban and rural areas in South Tripura District and approximately 1190 km. Of pipeline has been laid so far. There are 2 nos. of commissioned surface water treatment plants with rapid sand filters for supplying drinking water to Udaipur and Belonia town. For the other two Sub-divisional towns namely Amarpur and Sabroom, Government of India has sanctioned 2 more urban water supply schemes, which are going to be implemented in the next financial year.

For deep tube well sources, the water supply schemes are being provided with iron removal plants, since iron content in ground water in the district is generally found beyond permissible limit i.e. 0.1 to 1.0 milligram/litre. Iron removal plants have commissioned so far in the district is 15 and 19 such plants will also be completed in near future. Also, works for 19 more iron removal plants are also being taken up in the district.

In some urban areas particularly in plain/semi plain lands, overhead reservoirs are also being constructed so as to avoid disruption of water supply due to sudden interruption in power supply. 17 overhead tanks haven already been commissioned whereas work is in progress for 20 such tanks and works for 4 more tanks are also being taken up.

The under ground water availability in the district except in some part of Hrishyamukh block under Belonia Sub-division and Srinagar area of Satchand block in Sabroom Sub-division, is quite satisfactory. To substitute the ground water scarcity in the above stated places mini surface treatment plants are being considered for construction by tapping surface water sources from the nearby rivers/perennial streams. Work is in progress for 1 mini surface treatment plant while work for 4 such treatment plants are also being taken up.

After introduction of three tier Panchayat Raj System, the State government has decided to hand over rural water supply schemes to respective Gram Panchayats. Accordingly, the department has made an effort to involve the respective Gram Panchayats by way of enhancing IEC activities, human resource development by imparting training to the operators and also for minor maintenance works of the water supply schemes. So far the department has handed over 32 such schemes to respective Gram Panchayats of different blocks in South Tripura. The department is also contemplating to introduce construction of community based ground level water reservoirs instead of providing street stand post so as to reduce wastage of water.

A newly introduced water supply scheme namely "Sajal Dhara" is also being introduced in the State, involving 90% grant from the Govt. of India and 10% contribution from the community. Such schemes shall be targeted to augment the existing water supply in rural areas in near future.

Minor Irrigation

The total irrigable area in the district is 26093 Ha and the total area brought under irrigation is around 12376 Ha; 1561 Ha being the potential created during 2002-03.

During 2002-03, 45 Lift Irrigation Schemes have been commissioned and 3 Deep Tube-Well have also been re-sinked. 184 km. of PVC pipeline could be laid and 2253 metres of Pucca Canal have been constructed.

For the year 2003-04, the target for Lift Irrigation Scheme has been set to a total of 82 with 26 belonging to general, 6 to Special Component Plan and 50 to Tribal Sub-Plan. The total Diversion projects to be taken up are estimated at 9 with 5 belonging to general, 1 to Special Component Plan and 3 to Tribal Sub-Plan.

Executive Engineer, Irrigation and flood Management, Udaipur Division-III and Belonia Division-IV looks after the activities of the department of the district.