PATNA, May 28 -- More than 93% of families in Bihar now have access to piped water supply, with the number of households equipped with tap water increased sharply from 266,000 in 2016 to 18.7 million this year, claimed the public health engineering department minister Sanjay Kumar Singh here on Wednesday. The minister announced that piped drinking water would be extended to all remaining Mahadalit tolas (hamlets) across the state within the next three months under the 'Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal Yojana'. "Our focus is to provide piped drinking water to the Mahadalit Tolas. Our target is to complete the installation within three months," said the minister, while interacting with media persons at Soochna Bhawan. The minister was accompanied by PHED principal secretary Rajesh Kumar and engineers-in-chief Nityanand Prasad and Abhay Kumar Singh. Singh said the scheme, aimed at ensuring safe drinking water to rural families, was launched in 2016. The department is currently supplying piped water in 1,14,450 rural wards and has set a target of covering 20.2 million families. He assured residents that the government would ensure adequate water supply even during the peak summer season. The minister highlighted a marked improvement in the state's groundwater levels between 2019 and 2026. The number of panchayats in the 'very serious' category - with water levels below 50 feet - dropped from 138 to just 19, a decline of 66 per cent. Similar improvements were recorded across other categories, with the number of panchayats in the best category (water level within 20 feet) rising from 3,981 to 4,222. Singh credited the rise to public awareness and government initiatives such as the 'Jal Jeevan Hariyali' programme. To strengthen water quality monitoring, the department has set up a network of laboratories, including an NABL-accredited state-level referral lab, 38 district-level labs and 75 sub-divisional labs....