Water tank built for Rs 5.31 crore under Jal Jeevan Mission collapses in UP’s Sitapur

Water tank built for Rs 5.31 crore under Jal Jeevan Mission collapses in UP’s Sitapur

A newly built water tank in Chunkaw Behema village, Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh collapsed on Thursday. Fortunately, no injuries or casualties have been reported so far, according to a report by The Times of India.

The 3,500-litre tank was constructed under the Har Ghar Jal Yojana, part of the government’s Jal Jeevan Mission which aims to provide piped drinking water to every rural household. Built at a cost of Rs 5.31 crore, the tank had only been commissioned in January 2024. The locals said the tank had been supplying water to the village for the past two months, Hindustan Times reported.

This is the second tank collapse in Sitapur district in less than a year. In a similar case last year, a tank in Chitahala village collapsed during its trial run.

Anurag Srivastav, Additional Chief Secretary and director of the Jal Jeevan Mission, has now ordered a technical audit of all Har Ghar Jal tanks in the district to prevent more such incidents, TOI reported.

Taking cognisance, the State Water and Sanitation Mission (SWSM) has suspended a total of 12 employees, including junior and assistant engineers from the Rural Water Corporation. The construction firm, NCC Limited, was blacklisted along with the third-party inspection agency that had approved the project. A 5 per cent penalty was also imposed on NCC as liquidated damages, the report said.

The executive engineer Rajiv Kumar has been served chargesheet and departmental inquiry has been initiated against him.

A three-member committee has now been set up to look into the matter. This committee includes senior engineers from both the Rural Water Corporation and the Jal Jeevan Mission. They have been asked to submit a report within three days.

An official stated that out of over 16,000 tanks tested across Uttar Pradesh under this mission, only five have shown any damage so far, and action was promptly taken in all those cases.