New water, sewage mgmt body for Shimla

Shimla: Learning lessons from last year's jaundice outbreak in Shimla due to the supply of contaminated drinking water, the Himachal Pradesh government has announced that it would be forming a new circle for supplying drinking water and disposing of sewage in Shimla. In a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, a decision was taken to create 'Greater Shimla Water Supply and Sewerage Circle' under the municipal corporation (MC) of Shimla.
The new circle will be headed by a superintending engineer of the irrigation and public health (IPH) department.A 10-member technical monitoring group (TMG) will be formed for the purpose and will be headed by the chief secretary as chairman. He will be assisted by the IPH secretary, who will be the member secretary of the group. Greater Shimla Water Supply and Sewerage Circle will be an amalgamation of the existing infrastructure with the Shimla MC and the IPH Water Supply and Sewerage Circle, Shimla.
The Circle will have two divisions: first, water production and sewerage treatment; second, water Distribution and sewerage network. The health officer of Shimla MC will be the in-charge of the water quality monitoring and surveillance, and will control the water-testing labs being transferred by IPH to Shimla MC.
An agreement in this regard will be signed between the state government and Shimla MC. Last year, the outbreak of jaundice had killed over two dozen people and affected hundreds of others. When the authorities investigated the cause behind the outbreak, it was found that sewage had contaminated the water of Ashwani Khad water supply scheme.