Patna, More than 93 per cent of families in Bihar have been provided with tap water connections, with the number of beneficiary households rising from 2.66 lakh in 2016 to 1.87 crore in 2026, the state government said on Wednesday.Over 93 pc Bihar households getting water through pipeline: GovtAddressing a press conference, Public Health Engineering Department Minister Sanjay Kumar Singh said tap water connections in left-out hamlets, especially Mahadalit colonies, would be ensured within the next three months.He said the government has set a target of covering 2.02 crore families with water connections.Singh said the government has also taken several measures to deal with the prevailing heatwave conditions."A total of 475 water tanks and several water ATMs have been deployed to ensure water availability in vulnerable areas. Control rooms are also active in this regard. A total of 1.13 lakh hand pumps were repaired in rural areas during 2025-26," he said.PHED Principal Secretary Rajesh Kumar admitted that 86,000 hand pumps are still defunct, but said the department was working on a "war footing" to repair those.Singh said the government has decided to set up 100 water ATMs in the ongoing fiscal year, which will also be operational during events such as Shravani Mela.He said the department has also set up an NABL-accredited state-level laboratory, 38 district-level laboratories and 75 sub-divisional laboratories for regular water quality testing.Multi-parameter Field Testing Kits and H2S vials have also been made available at every panchayat level, he added."The data so generated is registered on the Centre's Water Quality Management Information System portal, enabling continuous monitoring and reporting," Singh said."The department is also relying on IoT-based real-time monitoring of water availability through the PayJal App," he said.The minister said the Centralised Grievance Redressal Cell is fully operational to address complaints related to drinking water supply."From August 2025 to May 2026, more than 1.54 lakh complaints were received in the CGRC, out of which around 1.46 lakh complaints have been resolved," he said.This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.