Our Correspondent
Kohima | August 18
Water supply and sanitation systems in all 1381 villages of the state are to be communitized under the Twelfth Finance Commission (TFC) funding. This is to be done in phases in a span of five years from 2005-2006 to 2009-2010 involving a total of Rs. 40.00 crores.
Already, a total of 884 villages have been communitized up to 2007-2008. IEC campaign and capacity-building trainings are being conducted in all the districts in selected communitized villages. 90% of the funds are directly sent to WATSAN committees in concern and the remaining 10 % are kept for capacity-building works/IEC campaigns, according to the Annual Administrative Report of the Public Health Engineering department.
Villages having proper water supply (i.e., 40 lpcd) and above have been selected to be communitized first to be followed by others. During 2008-2009, a total of 250 villages were earmarked with a budget provision of Rs. 200.00 lakhs under state plan and Rs. 800.00 lakh under 12th Finance Commission, which is in progress.
The report said that the main principle of communitization is to develop the capacity of the beneficiary-villages to manage existing water supply and sanitation assets already provided to them. It is with the ultimate goal of producing sustainable water supply and sanitation system in each village. Further, the IEC campaign and capacity-building activities are carried out in all districts through the Communication and Capacity Development Unit (CCDU) of the department, the report added.
