Farmers of seven villages in the district will soon start receiving treated water from the sewage treatment plant established in Basti Peer Dad for irrigation of their agricultural land.
Deputy Commissioner Himanshu Aggarwal said the work on this project, which cost Rs. 7.10 crore, is progressing rapidly. “Once completed, it will provide irrigation facilities to about 550 hectares of agricultural land in these villages”, he added.
Aggarwal said the project was being implemented under the Jalandhar Smart City project by the Soil and Water Conservation Department. He stated that the project involved laying a total of 20 km of underground pipeline, of which 17 km had already been completed.
The Deputy Commissioner said the treated water from the sewage treatment plant in Basti Peer Dad would be supplied to the fields through underground pipes and pump sets with a discharge capacity of 72 litres per second.
He said 80 percent of the work on the project had been completed and would be finished by the end of October, benefiting the farmers of Basti Peer Dad, Gill, Chamiara, Sangal Sohal, Safipur, Gakhla and Katlupur villages.
The Deputy Commissioner said the project would not only save groundwater but also benefit farmers by reducing their expenses on diesel to run tubewells. He said such alternative irrigation sources could significantly help prevent the groundwater level from further depletion.
Lupinder Kumar, Sub-Divisional Soil Conservation Officer of the Soil and Water Conservation Department Punjab, stated that to ensure the treated water remained within the safe standards for irrigation, this system would be equipped with monitoring devices.
The project will save 30 to 40 percent of groundwater in the area, reducing farmers’ reliance on it as treated water from the plant will be available through the year for irrigation.
Source: https://shorturl.at/tb1jV
Image Credit: The Tribune
