The government aims to take the number of piped water connections for rural families in the State to 70.85 lakh in two years.
Inaugurating the works on the Meenachil-Malankara project at Pala on Saturday, Water Resources Minister Roshy Augustine said the number of water connections in the State stood at 17 lakh when this government came to power. The number of rural connections was only 25% of the total connections.
Over the last year and a half, 38 lakh homes were connected to the Kerala Water Authority network, covering 52% of the total household units. Cooperation Minister V.N. Vasavan presided over the function.
The ₹1,243-crore Meenachil-Malankara project, which envisages drawing water from the Malankara dam in Idukki to feed 13 panchayats across the Pala and Poonjar constituencies, is being implemented under the Jal Jeevan Mission. In terms of expenditure, project components and distribution network, the project is the largest one to be undertaken by the KWA in its history.
Comprising a network of a 2,085-km long pipeline network and 154 tanks, the new project envisages providing 42,230 piped water connections covering 24,525 houses across eight panchayats of Pala and 17,705 houses in five panchayats of the Poonjar Assembly segments.
