Port Blair, Mar. 3: The Lt Governor, Lt Gen (Retd) Bhopinder Singh, has approved creation of Water & Sanitation Circle in the Andaman Public Works Department (APWD), the premier construction agency of the A&N Administration. The creation of a dedicated Water & Sanitation Circle in APWD will be headed by a Superintendent Engineer. There will be four Executive Engineers and a total of 160 new posts will be created. The posts include 27 AEs, 35 JEs including 56 clerical cadre. This will help in augmenting the drinking water supply and for providing treated water in various remote and dispersed habitations of the A&N Islands and will simultaneously generate additional employment opportunities.

Since the population of the A&N Islands is growing rapidly and the demand for water is increasing manifold, there is a greater need for concentrating on supplying demand based water and its quality. The objectives of the dedicated Water & Sanitation Circle will be to take control of all the existing sources/water works installation, distribution of water for urban, water treatment plants and all downstream activities related to water supply including land, to update database of all the existing sources, water works installation etc, to prepare master plan for drinking water for Port Blair town and adjourning urban areas, to take up studies for indications of sources, their viability/feasibility studies preparation of detail project report etc. for rural areas, augmentation of distribution system so as to achieve 24/7 system of distribution, realization of tariff from consumers/users, rationalization of tariff and revision of tariff from time to time in order to make the water supply system sustainable, conduct quality checks and quality measures for ensuring safe drinking water to every resident of the urban/rural areas, implementation of various water supply schemes as per the Master Plan for Port Blair urban and other rural areas,  to prepare rules/regulation related to water supply and sanitation, administer day to day affairs, enforce rules, prepare budget, revenue collection, auditing of accounts and preparing of balance sheet adopting commercial accounting system etc, to implement underground sewerage system for Port Blair town, its running and maintenance and expansion (as and when required) and to have interface with urban local body, Panchayati Raj Institutions, communities, NGOs, departments in the matter of water supply and sanitation and to take steps for conversation of water and improvement of sanitation of Port Blair urban areas for protection of fragile ecosystem of A&N Islands.

Apart from this, a sewerage system for the Port Blair town areas at present and other areas in future is also proposed to be developed. Detailed project reports have already been prepared for laying of sewerage lines with treatment plant and other facilities in Port Blair Municipal Council. A dedicated circle will facilitate fast implementation of the project and will ensure adhering to the quality parameters as per norms.