Jal Jeevan Mission: 2,163 drinking water testing labs set up; 24.61 lakh women trained

New Delhi/Hyderabad: With a total of 2,163 drinking water quality testing laboratories set up at different levels in States, 24.61 lakh women were trained for testing water using Field Testing Kits (FTKs) across India under the Jal Jeevan Mission.

There has been a significant reduction in the number of Arsenic and Fluoride affected habitations in the last 5 years

Since August 2019, the Government of India, in partnership with States, has been implementing the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), to provide potable tap water supply in adequate quantity, of prescribed quality and on a regular and long-term basis to every rural household in the country.

In every village, five persons are selected to get trained to conduct water quality testing using FTKs.

This data was given by Union minister of State for Jal Shakti V Somanna, in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Monday.

What is Jal Jeevan Mission?

Drinking water is a State subject and the responsibility of planning, approval, implementation, operation, and maintenance of drinking water supply schemes, including those under the Jal Jeevan Mission, lies with State/UT Governments. The Government of India supports the States by providing technical and financial assistance.

At the time of the announcement of the Jal Jeevan Mission on August 15, 2019, 3.23 crores (17%) of rural households were reported to have tap water connections. So far, as reported by States/ UTs as of July 31, 2024, around 11.80 crore additional rural households have been provided with tap water connections.

Out of 19.32 crore rural households, in 5.83 lakh villages, in the country, more than 15.03 crore (77.81%) households spread in around 5.80 lakh villages, are reported to have tap water supply in their homes.

Further, as of July 3, 2024, 2.31 lakh villages are reported as ‘Har Ghar Jal’.

Providing quality water to affected areas

Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, as per existing guidelines, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS:10500) standards are adopted as benchmarks for ensuring the quality of water being supplied through the piped water supply schemes.

Under JJM, while planning water supply schemes to provide tap water supply to households, priority is given to quality-affected habitations. While allocating the funds to States/UTs in a particular financial year, 10 per cent weightage is given to the population residing in habitations affected by chemical contaminants including Arsenic and Fluoride.

Under JJM, contamination in drinking water sources in rural areas is monitored per habitation.

According to the official data, since the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission, the number of Arsenic and fluoride-affected habitations has reduced over the years.

As of July 2024, there are 316 Arsenic and 265 fluoride-affected rural habitations in the country.

Provision of potable drinking water for cooking and drinking requirements has been made in all these remaining 316 Arsenic-affected and 265 Fluoride-affected habitations through Community Water Purification Plants (CWPPs).

The year-wise number of Arsenic and Fluoride affected habitations:

Water quality testing laboratories

As per the operational guidelines, States/UTs can utilise up to 2 per cent of their annual allocation of funds under JJM for Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance (WQM&S) activities inter alia which includes setting up and strengthening of water quality testing laboratories, procurement of equipment, instruments, chemicals, glassware, consumables, hiring of skilled manpower, surveillance by community using field test kits (FTKs), awareness generation, educational programmes on water quality, accreditation/recognition of laboratories, etc.

To enable States/UTs to test water samples for water quality, and for sample collection, reporting, monitoring and surveillance of drinking water sources, an online JJM–Water Quality Management Information System (WQMIS) portal has been developed.

Here are details of the water quality test reported through WQMIS for the Telugu states:

- In Andhra Pradesh, of the 15,996 villages, water testing has been done in 10,992 villages (68.72%), and in 9,254 villages, testing is done for chemical parameters using FTK.

- In Telangana, of the 9,586 villages, testing has been done in 5,454 villages (56.90%), in 4,816 villages, testing has been done for bacteriological parameters through labs.

However, there have been no villages where water testing is done using FTK.

5 persons trained from each village

As reported by States/UTs, so far 2,163 drinking water quality testing laboratories at different levels viz. State, regional, district, sub-division and/or block levels, have been set up in the country.

To encourage water quality testing to ensure a potable drinking water supply, States/UTs have opened water quality testing laboratories to the general public for testing of their water samples at a nominal rate.

A ‘Citizen Corner’ was also developed on the JJM Dashboard. The corner included a display of water quality test results in the public domain to further create awareness and build confidence among people about the quality of water supplies through the PWS in rural areas.

In order to empower the communities to monitor the water quality States/UTs have also been advised to identify and train five persons, preferably women, in every village to conduct water quality testing using FTKs at the village level and report the same on the WQMIS portal.

So far, as reported by States/UTs on WQMIS, as of date, more than 24.61 lakh women have been trained for testing water using FTKs.

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