The National Rural Drinking Water Program was established in 2009 as a centrally sponsored program that provides state governments with financial and technical assistance to provide rural residents with safe drinking water. It serves the sustainable supply of all people in the country with safe and sufficient drinking water for drinking, cooking and other household purposes.
Recently, the Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, approved the continuation and restructuring of the initiative to make it results-oriented, competitive and better monitored by focusing on the sustainability of the plans to ensure quality service delivery to rural communities. This article provides detailed coverage of the scheme.
Objectives
The initiative was founded with the aim of providing every rural dweller with drinking water, cooking water and other essential household items in a sustainable manner. It attempts to meet the requirement of minimum water quality standards. Its goal is to cover all affected quality issues and other homes and homes to provide them with a safe and adequate supply of drinking water.
To achieve the above goals, the following framework was designed:
- Provide safe and adequate drinking water supply to underserved, partially served and underserved households.
- Provide portable drinking water for households affected by water quality.
- Encourage states to achieve clean water.
- Conduct regular support activities.
- Help areas covered by the Desert Development Program (DDP) cope with the extreme conditions of low rainfall and scarce water availability.
- Alleviating drinking water problems in rural areas during natural disasters.
Pattern of Funding
Funding under the initiative will be allocated to states based on the following criteria:
- Rural population
- SC and ST Rural population
- Desert, drought-prone and mountainous areas
- The extent of devolution of program management to panchayats
Water Quality Surveillance
Water quality monitoring and monitoring started in February 2006 as part of this program with 3% funding. Its goal is to:
- Empower rural communities by raising awareness through information, education and communication (IEC) activities to address system stewardship.
- Provide training for five grassroots workers in each Gram Panchayat, who could be ASHA staff, Anganwadi staff, science teachers, high school girls, panchayat members, retired army officers, etc. Training will also be extended to 5 Gram Panchayat workers, 2 state-level people, 4 district-level people and 5 block-level people.
Components
To address new challenges in the rural drinking water sector related to the availability, sustainability and quality of the NRDWP, the program components, for which all funds except 5% for water quality and 2% for disasters will be used, are:
- Coverage to provide a safe and adequate supply of drinking water to unserved partially served and rehabilitated households,
- Sustainability to encourage States to achieve drinking water security at the local level, provision drinking water to households affected by
- Quality and Maintenance (O&M) for utility expenses, repair and replacement of drinking water supply projects, water quality monitoring and monitoring (WQMS) and SUPPORT activities.
- Supply of drinking water to households
- Support activities
- Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance (WQMS)