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Quality drinking water is the foremost need for a healthy society. Towards this end, the Central Government has come out with special measures/schemes, especially in the rural areas and regions with specific quality related problems.
The National Drinking Water Mission was established in 1986 as one of the five technology missions. The primary objective of the Mission was to improve performance and cost-effectiveness of the ongoing programmes in the rural drinking water and sanitation sector so as to ensure sustained availability of adequate quantity of safe drinking water and basic sanitation facilities in rural India. This was sought to be achieved by providing low-cost but effective and practical solutions to the identified problems, application of available scientific and technological inputs from various national laboratories and better water and sanitation management. The Mission was renamed as Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission (RGNDWM) in 1991.
Rural Drinking Water Supply
Government of India supplements efforts of State governments by providing financial assistance under the centrally sponsored Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP). State-wise allocations are made by Government of India under ARWSP wherein weightage is given to rural population, extent of arid/hill area under DDP, DPAP and HADP and quality affected villages. State Government provides matching State share equal to allocation made by Government of India. 99.6 percent of rural population has since been covered against 56 per cent habitations when the Mission was launched. This covers 3,54,673 problem villages and 8,12,066 other villages/habitations. 20 per cent of ARWSP funds are earmarked for Sector Reforms/Swajaldhara, 5 per cent for DDP areas and 5 per cent for meeting contingencies. Remaining ARWSP funds are allocated to States for utilisation on various projects to make available quality drinking water and sustainability of water sources. Over 8900 Swajaldhara schemes in 370 districts of 22 States and one Union Territory have been taken up with community participation.
Sector Reforms Project, launched in 1999 in selected districts on pilot basis, was scaled up to cover the entire country through Swajaldhara in December 2002. This community based, demand driven rural drinking water supply programme is demand responsive and participatory. It gave full ownership to the Panchayati Raj institutions over rural drinking water assets.
Water Testing Laboratories
RGNDWM provides funds @ Rs. 5 lakh per district for establishment of water testing laboratories at district level. So far 430 district labs have been sanctioned by Government of India of which 252 have been established. State governments have set up another 158 water testing laboratories. In addition 23 mobile laboratories have also been provided to various States.
Research & Development
For fulfilling the objective of the Mission in identification of cost-effective technologies for water supply programme, RGNDWM has sanctioned 135 R & D projects of which 89 have been completed.
Preparation of hydrogeomorphological maps by National Remote Sensing Agency on 1:50000 scale is underway, showing prospective ground water zones and priority zones and sites for planning recharge structures. So far 1732 maps have been prepared and handed over to States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa and Gujarat. The success rate through usage of groundwater prospect maps ranges between 82 per cent in Madhya Pradesh to 100 per cent in Kerala.
Mission has developed Solar Photo Voltaic Pumping Systems for pumping water in remote non-electrified villages. A total of 325 SPV systems have been sanctioned and installed of which 256 are functional.
Sub-Mission Projects
To address water quality problems due to biochemical contamination, exclusive Sub-Mission projects relating to eradication of Guinea worm, Desalination of Water, Control of Fluorosis, removal of excess Arsenic, removal of excess Iron and conservation of water and recharging of ground water aquifers were launched. 120 Sub-Mission projects were sanctioned out of which 96 projects have been successfully completed so far. Guinea worm has been completely eradicated from the country and certified by World Health Organisation.
Survey of Quality and Habitations
In order to determine the magnitude of water quality problems, second random sample survey was carried out through the State Governments between 2000-04 wherein 5-10 per cent stratified random sample survey of water sources has been undertaken, and 100 per cent survey has been carried out in Blocks with water quality problems. As per available results, 31,306 habitations are fluoride affect, 5029 are arsenic affected, 23,495 salinity affected, 13,958 nitrate affected, 1,11,201 iron affected and 24,911 are multiple problem affected. In all, 2,09,900 habitations are presently water quality affected habitations. Fresh habitation survey to identify the status of drinking water supply has been carried out in 2003, which is being revalidated by the Indian Institute of Public Administration. First such survey was done in 1991-93.
MIS
The Mission provides 100 per cent central assistance to States towards provision of hardware to State Public Health Engineering Departments, development of software for planning, monitoring and implementation of various activities in the sector and conducting training programmes. Rs.98.74 crore released to States for computerization and establishment of Management Information System.
Women’s Involvement
The massive expansion of the rural water supply infrastructure has gone hand in hand with increased community participation, awareness generation and decentralised management. Since women are the principal beneficiaries of the programme, they are involved in all stages of implementation of rural water supply & sanitation schemes, from handpump mechanics to members of Village Water and Sanitation Committees.
Targets
The Mission has planned to cover all residual and slipped back habitations so as to ensure sustained supply of safe drinking water to all rural habitations ahead of the time-frame prescribed in Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, and to provide all rural schools and anganwadis with safe drinking water and sanitation facilities in the shortest possible time. Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance Programme are also being launched in association with the Ministry of Health.
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