Water Information Management System by Using Geographic Information Systems

Purulia is the westernmost district of the State of West Bengal. As per 2001 census total population of the district is 2,535,516, out of which 90% are residing in rural areas. The percentage of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes are 18.29% and 18.27% respectively. Total number of Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in rural areas of this district is 43.65 %. Due to its difficult socio and economic condition, the district is covered under the Backward Region Grant Fund, which is the national development program particularly aimed to redress regional imbalance in development and contribute towards poverty alleviation for backwards districts. Percentage of total rural population covered by piped water supply scheme in the district is as low as 16.75%, even in comparison with the percentage of the overall West Bengal State, as 37.95%. In absence of piped water supply scheme with sustainable source of water in most of the areas of the district, people of the area depend mainly on deep masonry wells / DTH hand tube wells. During summer most of the aforesaid sources are often dried up due to excessive lowering of ground water table rendering acute crisis of dirking water in the region. Furthermore, 17 blocks out 20 blocks are reported to have areas being affected with fluoride contamination in ground water. As such it has become necessary to provide piped water supply schemes from available sustainable safe sources to mitigate suffering of local people from acute crisis of drinking water and fluoride contamination in ground water. The implementation of the piped water supply schemes will also contribute to sustainable development in the region. Thus the piped water supply scheme in the district was proposed with River Kumari carrying surface runoff water from Mukutmanipur Dam as source of water for the Project under Phase-I and Panchet Dam has been selected as source for Phase-II works. The overall design calculations of the water supply facilities have been worked out based on water service level @ 70 lpcd with the projected population up to 2045, in accordance with the West Bengal Guidelines for Preparation of Piped Water Supply Schemes under Public Health Engineering Department. Based on which the major components of the Project involve all civil, mechanical, electrical and instrumentation items including SCADA related to raw water intake-cum-pump house, approach bridge, raw water transmission main, water treatment plant, clear water pump house, 4nos. of intermediate booster pumping stations and clear water transmission main to 42 nos. of overhead reservoirs proposed in the project. The Phase-I Project with source in River Kumari near Mukutmanipur Dam are covering the following blocks in Purulia district including Bulk supply to Purulia Municipality & left out area of Barabazar Block: · Manbazar-I · Purulia-I · Barabazar · Punch · Arsha · Bulk provision for Purulia Municipality · Bulk provision for left out portion of Barabazar Block