Punjab Govt invests ₹2,900 crore to boost water and sanitation, achieving 100% rural tap water coverage and major upgrades across villages.
Punjab Govt : Hardeep Singh Mundian, the minister of water supply and sanitation for Punjab, reported that the government of Bhagwant Singh Mann had directed more than Rs. 2,900 crore in investments to improve the province’s water supply and sanitation systems. According to him, this ongoing financial drive has improved sanitation and water quality systems, increased the adoption of technology, and expedited the completion of large projects, all of which have improved daily life in rural and semi-urban areas. More than 34 lakh families in the state currently have access to clean and drinkable drinking water, he said, with 100% coverage. According to the Minister, the state’s rural development has been given approval for the Rs. 2,190.80 crore yearly implementation plan in the rural sanitation sector for FY 2025–2026.
According to the Cabinet Minister, Punjab is now the fifth state in the nation to reach the milestone of offering functional household tap connections to every household in rural areas. He said that through 15 significant surface water supply projects encompassing 1,706 villages, targeted attention was paid to areas impacted by water quality. Four of these projects have already been put into service, while eleven more are almost finished. Together, these projects will guarantee a consistent supply of surface water for about 25 lakh rural homes, he continued.
According to the Water Supply and Sanitation Minister, 205 rural water supply schemes were finished at a cost of Rs. 278.37 crore during the current fiscal year, enhancing drinking water supply availability, pressure, and reliability for around 2.33 lakh rural inhabitants. According to him, a proposal for 144 water supply systems that will cover 176 villages has been approved. It will cost Rs. 160 crore and be finished by 2026–2027. Approximately 3.04 lakh rural residents will gain from the initiative. Additionally, a plan to upgrade 98 schemes, totaling 127 villages across 19 districts, at an estimated cost of Rs. 105 crore, is being approved.
With an investment of Rs. 140 crore, Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Singh Mann recently laid the foundation stone for the improvement of water supply and sewerage works in Sri Muktsar Sahib, the Cabinet Minister said, further enhancing coordinated infrastructure planning across urban and rural areas.He reported that throughout the year, technology-led governance continued to be a major topic of concentration. 346 water supply schemes, encompassing 897 villages, have adopted an IoT-based automation and monitoring system. These programs are connected to a dashboard that is based on mobile apps and the web, which tracks operational factors in real time, facilitating better service delivery and quicker response times.
In addition, the Cabinet Minister stated that a three-tier network of laboratories—one at the state level, seven at the regional level, seventeen at the district level, and seven at the block level—has established a robust institutional framework for water quality monitoring. Seven laboratories are additionally equipped for bacteriological analysis, and all laboratories are NABL recognized for chemical testing.With a completion target of FY 2025–2026, the department is investing around Rs. 11.42 crore to upgrade the bacteriological facilities at these laboratories and build comparable sections in 17 district-level laboratories. According to him, seven laboratories have already finished developing their infrastructure and installing their equipment.
According to Mundian, villages impacted by groundwater heavy metal contamination have implemented targeted mitigating measures. Ten villages impacted by sulphate, nitrate, and selenium have had reverse osmosis (RO) plants installed at a cost of Rs. 54.33 lakh. A total of Rs. 5.91 crore is being spent on community water purification plants in 23 uranium-affected communities, with completion anticipated in February 2026.
At a cost of Rs. 9.77 crore, he added, administrative sanction has been given for the construction of arsenic-cum-iron removal plants in 32 villages impacted by arsenic, and the bidding procedure is already under way. In addition, community water purification plants have been erected in four villages impacted by fluoride at a cost of Rs. 38.69 lakh, and comparable projects in two villages affected by arsenic are expected to be finished by December 2025 at a cost of Rs. 18.60 lakh. In the Patiala district, a uranium removal plant has been set up in the village of Ranbirpura with the help of CSR.
According to the Water Supply and Sanitation Minister, 1598 community sanitary complexes have been built throughout the state in the rural sanitation sector, and construction on 580 more complexes is still proceeding. 6606 homes received toilets during the current fiscal year, and 12,967 household toilets are now under development.
Twenty biogas plants have been built in district-level gaushalas, and three more are scheduled to be built by 2025–2026 in Malerkotla, Gurdaspur, and Sri Muktsar Sahib. The completion of 28 block-level plastic waste treatment units and the ongoing construction of 22 more demonstrate the rapid speed of solid waste management projects. To handle the dry and plastic garbage produced in rural regions, 77 more units are scheduled to be erected in villages during FY 2025–2026.
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After obtaining Open Defecation Free (ODF) status, Mundian stated unequivocally that the state of Punjab is currently working on obtaining ODF Plus (Model) status for every village by March 31, 2026. Currently, 2250 villages have implemented scientific wastewater management models, while 1812 villages are still in the process of doing so. Similarly, 4,260 villages have finished compost pits for solid waste management, and 8747 villages have built screening-cum-desilting chambers.