Clean canal water has reached the taps of 75,000 households across 316 villages in Punjab's Patiala district — and the project cost ₹432 crore to make it happen. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday, November 2, 2026, inaugurated two new Water Treatment Plants at village Mandoli in Patiala, dedicating them to the public in a move the state government calls a permanent answer to decades of contaminated groundwater.

What two plants at Mandoli will now deliver

The twin Water Treatment Plants, built at a combined cost of ₹432 crore, draw from canal sources and will supply treated drinking water daily across 5 assembly segments, covering 316 villages and 75,000 homes. Mann posted on X in Punjabi: 'ਹੁਣ 5 ਹਲਕਿਆਂ ਦੇ 316 ਪਿੰਡਾਂ ਅਤੇ 75 ਹਜ਼ਾਰ ਘਰਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਹਰ ਰੋਜ਼ ਪੀਣ ਵਾਲਾ ਸਾਫ਼ ਨਹਿਰੀ ਪਾਣੀ ਮਿਲੇਗਾ' — 'Now 316 villages and 75,000 homes across 5 constituencies will receive clean canal water every day.' Canal-fed treatment plants are the state's preferred tool for bypassing groundwater that carries elevated levels of fluoride and other contaminants.

Punjab's long fluoride problem — and why canal water matters

For decades, communities across Patiala and other Punjab districts have drawn from groundwater laced with fluoride, leading to dental and skeletal fluorosis — conditions that quietly disable rural populations. Central and state surveys have documented the contamination for years, pushing successive governments toward treated surface-water infrastructure. The canal network that crisscrosses Punjab offers a cleaner, consistent alternative, provided water is treated before it reaches households. That is precisely the gap these two plants are built to close.

Mann framed the inauguration in direct public-health terms, saying the project would be a 'ਲਾਈਫਲਾਈਨ' — 'lifeline' — for affected families, and that 'the health of Punjabis is our biggest priority.' He closed with the rallying cry 'ਇਨਕਲਾਬ ਜ਼ਿੰਦਾਬਾਦ!' — 'Long live the revolution!' — a signature of the Aam Aadmi Party's populist register.

AAP's infrastructure push in rural Punjab

Since taking office in March 2022, Chief Minister Mann and the AAP government have positioned rural water access as a flagship governance metric. Canal-based drinking water schemes have been funded under both state and central programmes, with treatment-plant capacity being added in districts where groundwater quality is worst. The Mandoli project scales that commitment: covering five constituencies in a single stroke signals a district-level, rather than village-by-village, approach to the problem. Whether subsequent public-health data — fluorosis rates, waterborne illness incidence — reflect the investment will be the real test of impact.

What gets watched next: similar treatment plants in other fluoride-affected Punjab districts, and whether the rollout pace accelerates ahead of the 2027 Punjab assembly election cycle.