Backgrounder

Ensuring the availability of potable drinking water in rural areas has been a major challenge. Keeping this in mind Rural drinking water has been one of the six components of Bharat Nirman, a major initiative by the Government of India to build rural infrastructure since  2005. Phase I of  Bharat Nirman was implemented in the period 2005-06 to 2008-09 while the Phase II is being implemented from 2009-10 to 2011-12.

Status of Rural Drinking Water :

During Bharat Nirman Phase – I period, 55,067 un-covered and about 3.31 lakh slipped-back habitations were to be covered with provisions of drinking water facilities.Water quality problems in 2.17 lakh quality-affected habitations was to be addressed. While prioritizing the water quality problem, arsenic and fluoride affected habitations have been accorded priority followed by iron, salinity, nitrate and other contaminants.

Measures undertaken:

In order to ensure that habitations once provided with drinking water supply infrastructure do not slip back and face drinking water problem, sustainability of drinking water sources and systems has been accorded high priority. To achieve drinking water security at village/ habitation level, conjunctive use of water i.e. judicious use of rainwater, surface water and ground water is promoted. In order to enable the rural community to shoulder responsibility in management, operation and maintenance of water supply systems at village level, decentralized, demand-driven, community-managed approach has been adopted. To further strengthen community participation in the drinking water sector the National Rural Drinking Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance program was launched in February, 2006 under which 5 persons in each Gram Panchayat are to be trained to carry out regular surveillance of drinking water sources for which 100% financial assistance including water testing kits, are provided.

Physical Progress:

i) Uncovered habitations:

Against 55,067 un-covered habitations to be covered during the Bharat Nirman period, 54,440 habitations have been covered during Phase-I. During 2009-10, 377 habitations out of the 586 targetted habitations were covered . In 2010-11, 183 habitations have been reported as covered upto 31.12.2010 against the target of 376 habitations. The strategy adopted under the National Rural Drinking Water Program (NRDWP) is to cover all uncovered habitations to ensure that the rural population gets at least 40 lpcd (and additional 30 lpcd for cattle in DDP areas) of potable water from sources lying within the village or nearby.

ii) Quality-affected habitations:

More than 85% of the sources in rural drinking water supply schemes are ground-water based. Under the NRDWP, chemical contaminants which are sought to be tackled are excess arsenic, fluoride, iron, salinity and nitrate. Except for nitrate, all others occur naturally. Nitrate occurs in drinking water due to leaching of chemical fertilizers and sewerage. The strategy of the Department is to prioritize addressing the problems of arsenic and fluoride in drinking water through alternative surface water sources. The treatment technologies that are available for removal of excess arsenic and fluoride are still not foolproof in respect of reject management and operation & maintenance issues. Though a target of 2.17 lakh quality affected habitations was identified at the beginning of Bharat Nirman, the States submitted an action plan for covering only 1,95,813 such habitations.

Arsenic & Fluoride :

As on 1.04.2006, there were 7,067 habitations reported to be afflicted with arsenic and 29,070 habitations with fluoride contamination. Priority has been given to address the problems in these habitations. However, that due to expansion of testing, more areas are getting identified as having problems of quality.

Iron :

At the beginning of Bharat Nirman period there were 1,04,437 rural habitations affected with excess iron in drinking water sources. The focus is to tackle excess iron problem through aeration based technology or low-cost terra-cotta based filtration technique. States such as Karnataka and Orissa have already taken up the challenge of tackling this contamination through low-cost terracotta based filtration technology.

Salinity :

In respect of salinity, 12,425 habitations were having a problem at the beginning of Bharat Nirman period. Although there are a number of technologies like distillation, ion-exchange, reversible osmosis , electro-dialysis etc., these being expensive solutions the focus of the Department is to tackle this problem through dilution of groundwater through artificial recharge of groundwater.

Nitrate :

The strategy adopted to tackle excess nitrate in the drinking water is by improving the sanitary conditions. At the beginning of Bharat Nirman period, 19,387 habitations were afflicted with excess nitrate. As reported by the States, 3,10,698 quality affected habitations were addressed by sanctioned projects and of these 50,168 habitations have been fully covered with completed projects to provide safe water supply during Phase-I.

Status of Quality Affected Habitations : 

As on 1.4.2009 at the beginning of Bharat Nirman phase-II states reported that 1,79,999 quality affected habitations were remaining to be covered.  Of these during 2009-10,32,734 and during 2010-11 upto 31.12.2010, 10,783 habitations have been reported as covered. Thus, in all during Bharat Nirman phase-I and II, 93,685 quality affected habitations have been fully covered with completed schemes. The goal of the Department is to cover all remaining water quality affected habitations with safe drinking water by the end of Phase-II (2009-12).

Financial Progress:

For the rural water supply, component of Bharat Nirman, it was envisaged that Rs.25,300 crores would be required as Central share during 4 years. Accordingly in 2005-06, Rs. 4,098 crores and in 2006-07 Rs. 4,560 crores were utilized. In the 11thPlan period, in 2007-08 , Rs.6,442.76 crores, in 2008-09 ,Rs. 7,298.79 crores and in 2009-10 , Rs. 7,989.72 crores have been utilized. Out of the total budget of Rs 9000 crore for rural drinking water in 2010-11 , amount worth Rs 6692.92 crore was utilized upto 31.12.2010.

It is expected that with the focus on reaching out to households, involvement of community and adopting technologies that are people friendly the objective of ensuring access to potable drinking water in rural areas under the National Rural Drinking Water Program (NRDWP) can be achieved.   

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AKT/BS