The status of drinking water availability is very grim in the State and can not be overemphasized. There are many regions in the State which suffer from not just water scarcity, but also from poor quality of water which renders what ever little water is available unfit for human and cattle consumption.

PHED, the State Level Department responsible for providing drinking water to the Rural and Urban habitations in the State, has identified a total number of 41072 villages/habitations that are quality affected in the State at present. The number is likely to increase in future due to excessive dependence on ground water leading to its over extraction and further contamination.

Thus water availability is a major problem in most of the areas of the State and is very severe in the desert districts. The situation is even worse in areas where water availability is restricted due to quality issues. The long term solution to this problem is to provide potable water to these areas from the nearest available surface water process.

In this regard, PHED has formulated 12 drinking water supply schemes, which seek to transfer water from surface water sources like Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana (IGNP) & its various lift schemes, Chambal River and Bisalpur Dam to the affected areas. The estimated cost of these projects will be around Rs. 6600 crores.

As the financial resources of the State Government are limited and cannot support such a huge investment, it has been proposed to seek assistance from the Central Government, various financial institutions and multilateral funding agencies. These agencies require a sound project information memorandum even at the initial discussion levels. The department has appointed PDCOR Limited for preparation of the above project information memorandum.