Concept Note on Water Quality standards of Rural Drinking Water Supply in India 1.

A National Workshop on Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance

in rural areas was organized by the then Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission (RGNDWM) in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which was sponsored by the UNICEF and WHO. Some of the relevant recommendations of the Workshop were: i. Drinking Water Quality Control & Surveillance (DWQC&S) should be accorded a high priority and suitable institutional mechanisms at national, State, district, block and Panchayat levels should be developed involving all related sectors. ii. Water quality surveillance should be the responsibility of the Department of Health which should involve the Panchayats and the community in surveillance iii. To take care of pollution of water sources arising from human waste and industrial and agricultural activities, appropriate linkages between DWQC&S and Central and State Pollution Control Boards should be developed. iv. Before contemplating making supply of water of poor quality punishable under the law, it is necessay to ensure that the agencies responsible for control and surveillance of water quality have adequate measures to ensure supply of safe water. It was recommended that there should be legislative measures for DWQC&S after creating the environmental management capacity and strengthening infrastructure of the agencies engaged in the field, including Panchayat Raj Institutions. 2. Putting in place the requisite mechanism to monitor the quality of

drinking water and devising effective IEC interventions to disseminate information and educate people on health and hygiene aspects of clean drinking water , are the identified thrust areas of the Government.

Following the recommendations of the Workshop on Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance in 1997, an integrated WQ testing, monitoring and surveillance system to be operated with community participation by using Catchment Area Approach (involving district and taluka level educational institutions laboratories) has been developed. Pilot studies on Catchment Area Approach were commissioned in 2002-03 in four districts of the county viz, Kangra (HP), Allahabad (UP), Nellore (AP), Sehore (MP). A manual on this approach has been prepared with the help of the All India Institute of Hygiene & Public Health, Kolkata. It is proposed to implement the community based WQ Testing, Monitoring & Surveillance programme in the country through a National level Referral Institute and State level Referral Institutes, identified by State Governments. 3. Presently the Bureau of Indian Standards specifications IS:105001991 govern the quality of drinking water supplies in India by public agencies. These are based on International standards for drinking water quality issued by the WHO and the manual of standards of quality for drinking water supplies, ICMR,1971. It is understood that BIS is in the process of second revision of IS:10500, based on EU directives relating to the quality of water intended for human consumption (80/778/EC), for which comments were invited by September 2003. A view has been expressed that drinking water control and surveillance need to be established on a firm footing through separate legislation, after building the necessary capacities, human resource development and strengthening the existing infrastructure, and meanwhile the incremental standards formulated by BIS could be enforced. 4. Government of India recently considered the issue of regulation of drinking water by making suitable provision in the integrated

Food Law Bill. A view was expressed to include water in the definition of food since water borne diseases are the major public health concern in the country. It was observed that in the present situation it is not feasible to include water in the definition of food. Various formulations on the issue of either putting water in the definition of food, or alternatively, having a separate provision for schemes relating to water, their implementation etc. or their inclusion in the Integrated Food Law are under consideration. 5. It was felt that the issue of drinking water is required to be considered as a separate self contained proposal, considering its desirability, feasibility and all other aspects such as standard setting mechanism, regulation of potable water, phasing of implementation and implications in Center State relations. Since water falls in the entry 17 of the State list in the Seventh Schedule to the constitution, potable water as such is regulated by various local bodies/authorities and the State Governments are responsible for proper implementation of laws made by them. It is felt that the proposals related to potable water should address all relevant aspects with a view to making it a self contained legislative proposal, in consultation with all Ministries/ Departments, as well as the states. 6. The alternative formulation as such would require making legislative proposals for enacting a central legislation to provide for water and its regulation through the States and its agencies. 7. Therefore the State Governments are requested to give their comments on the issues mentioned in para 5 above so that this

department could prepare legislative proposals addressing to all these issues.