Patna : As temperatures begin to climb, the Bihar government has launched a comprehensive initiative to stave off a drinking water crisis this summer. The Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) has drawn up an extensive action plan focusing on the repair of hand pumps, deployment of water tankers, and improvements to water quality.
According to Public Health Engineering Minister Neeraj Kumar Singh, a special campaign is under way to service hand pumps across the state, with additional riser pipes being installed in panchayats where groundwater levels have dipped.
The department has approved the installation of 1,520 new hand pumps for the 2025–26 financial year. At the same time, work has begun to repair more than 120,000 existing hand pumps, with each repair documented via an online portal using geo-tagged photos and local verification.
Singh said priority repairs are being carried out in public places, schools and Mahadalit colonies. “In areas where schemes under the Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal programme are insufficient due to falling groundwater levels, water supply through tankers will be ensured,” he added.
To monitor the situation, daily assessments of water sources are being conducted at the panchayat level. District-level control rooms have also been activated to supervise the distribution network, which includes a mapped route for tanker services to vulnerable villages and hamlets.
The department is also working to flag water sources with high levels of arsenic, fluoride or iron. These have been marked in red and are being addressed as part of a special water quality drive.
Meanwhile, infrastructure work under Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal has been accelerated to connect more schools and Anganwadi centres to piped drinking water. Animal welfare has also been factored into the plan, with 261 cattle drinking spots constructed statewide. Physical inspections are under way to ensure they are functioning as intended.
