NEW DELHI: Flagging inadequate facilities to deal with water contamination in rural areas, a parliamentary panel has expressed the need to have a time-bound programme for setting up of Community Water Purification Plants (CWPPs) in all water quality affected habitats across the country.
The panel – standing committee on water resources – in its report, tabled in Parliament last week, noted with concern that 48,969 rural habitations in the country are affected with water contamination as of February 15, out of which 3,112 habitations are affected due to Arsenic contamination, 2,972 with Fluoride, 31,142 with Iron, 866 with Nitrate, 300 with heavy metals and 10,575 habitations with the high salinity in water.
Though the ‘Jal Shakti’ (water resources) ministry told the panel that the central flagship scheme – Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) – aims at providing potable water to every rural household through tap water connection by 2024 with a special focus on water quality-affected areas and the states are being repeatedly requested to install CWPPs in all the remaining habitations on priority, the panel noted that the “reply is silent with regard to action taken or proposed to be taken with regard to the provision of safe drinking water to those habitations which are affected with contaminants like Iron and salinity”.
“Further, the reply also does not state in specific terms as to whether any action plan has been prepared for setting up CWPPs in all water quality affected (rural) habitations,” said the Committee, headed by BJP Lok Sabha member Sanjay Jaiswal, while recommending that there should be focussed attention towards habitations which are affected with water quality issues on account of pollutants like Iron and salinity which constituted the bulk of the water quality affected habitations.
Since planning and implementation of piped water supply scheme in water quality-affected habitations based on a safe water source takes time, the ministry has, as an interim measure, made provisions to set up CWPPs to provide 8-10 litres per capita per day (lpcd) potable water to meet drinking and cooking need of every household, in these habitations.
The Committee has been informed that 32,277 CWPPs have been set up in the country so far by various states. The panel is, however, “quite skeptical” as to whether these plants are adequate enough to cater to the requirements of all quality affected habitats, and therefore recommend that the ministry in consultation with states assess the total requirements of CWPPs and draw an action plan to set up an adequate number of such plants in all the habitations.
Under the JMM, over 2,000 laboratories across the country have been opened up to the general public for testing their water samples at a nominal rate. Besides, the village community is empowered to lead water quality surveillance by regular water quality testing.
“In every village, five persons, preferably women, are being trained on water quality testing using Field Test Kits (FTKs), so that they can test water source(s) and delivery points every year, at least twice for bacteriological contamination and once for chemical contamination. This is in addition to the department level water testing in laboratories,” said a ministry’s note on the JJM. About 18.50 lakh samples were tested in laboratories and 11.50 lakh samples were tested using FTKs by local village people since April 1 this year.
The ministry has already formulated the ‘drinking water quality monitoring & surveillance framework’ for the proper functioning of water quality testing laboratories, timely detection of any water quality contamination, and redressal mechanism for ensuring the quality of tap water and sources.