BY TC News Desk
Agartala, 23rd March 2026: Chief Minister Prof. Dr. Manik Saha today said that the Drinking Water and Sanitation Department is working in a mission mode to provide drinking water to every rural household in the state on a regular and long-term basis through pipelines.
He said that currently, a total of 154 surface water-based small and large treatment plants and innovative type plants are operational in the state. Out of these, 136 are in rural areas and 18 are in urban areas.
This information was given by Chief Minister Prof. Dr. Manik Saha in response to a calling attention notice brought by MLA Shambhu Lal Chakma on the last day of the budget session of the Tripura Legislative Assembly.
The subject of the notice was: “Regarding the adoption of a more advanced modern plan in place of DTW by prioritizing water conservation to save the groundwater table.”
Providing further information in this regard, Dr. Saha said that the Drinking Water and Sanitation Department is working in a mission mode to provide drinking water to every rural household in the state on a regular and long-term basis through pipelines.
“Drinking water is being supplied to the rural areas of the state through various sources such as deep tube wells, shallow tube wells, surface water treatment plants, and innovative projects. The department has already set up many surface water treatment plants and innovative projects focusing on river, stream, reservoir, and spring water in different areas to conserve the groundwater level, and more work is in progress,” said Dr. Saha.
The Chief Minister said that these projects are costly and take some time to complete.
“In the meantime, the Drinking Water and Sanitation Department has taken up the work of all these projects under the Jal Jeevan Mission, giving priority to surface water. However, due to the insufficiency of surface water in various areas of the state, DTW (deep tubewell) schemes have to be set up using groundwater to provide drinking water services. Only 10.06% of the annual groundwater recharge in the state is extracted for water use. The annual groundwater recharge in the state is 1.24 billion cubic meters (BCM), and the water withdrawal is 0.12 BCM. In contrast, across the country, 60.63% of the annual groundwater recharge is extracted for water use,” said Dr. Saha.
Dr. Saha further said that, to date, a total of 154 (136 in rural areas and 18 in urban areas) surface water-based small and large treatment plants and innovative type plants are operational in the state.
“The work of constructing one surface water-based treatment plant and innovative type plant in urban areas and 71 surface water-based treatment plants in rural areas has been taken up as per the plan. Among these, one is in Sabroom, and others are in various block areas such as Dashda (6), Jampui Hill (2), Laljuri (1), Kadamtala (3), Kalachhara (1), Pecharthal (2), Kumarghat (3), Ambassa (1), Chawmanu (26), Damburnagar (2), Ganganagar (1), Manu (8), Durgachoumuhoni (2), Mungiakami (3), Satchand (1), Poyangbari (1), Jampuijla (1), Kakraban (1), Matabari (1), Killa (1), Amarpur (2), and Karbook (2). Apart from this, there are plans to build ‘surface water-based treatment plants and innovative type plants’ in 27 other block areas,” he said.
