The Centre is planning to make it mandatory for the States to take up at least one mega-surface water based piped water supply schemes to reduce dependence on groundwater sources and ensure safe drinking water to the people. However, hilly States will be exempted from this plan proposed to be executed under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme.
“The purpose of taking up of such a scheme is to take and demonstrate the benefits of such an approach for tackling slippages of fully covered habitations which are based on groundwater sources and to reduce dependence of ground water in rural water supply scheme,” said a senior official from the Union Water and Sanitation Ministry.
Presently, coverage of piped water supply is poor at 35 per cent. By 2017, the Government plans to ensure that at least 55% of rural population in the country have access to 55 litre per capita per day (lpcd) within their household premises or at a horizontal or vertical distance of not more than 100 metres from their households without barriers of social or financial discrimination.
“This is possible only if the States take up the water grid projects that have potential to supply water to far-off places,” the official said.
In this regard, the Centre has been showcasing Gujarat model of statewidewater supply grid to achieve potable water security in their region. Spread over 1,20,769 km supplies water to far-off places through an inter-basin bulk water transfer, the State Wide Drinking Water Grid is said to serve 65 per cent of Gujarat’s population.
Other States are following suit, ensuring better technology and results.
For instance, Telangana’s Bhagiratha Mission he water grid project, estimated to cost `25,000 crore aims at providing 100 litres of clean drinking water per person in rural households and 150 litres per person in urban areas. In all, the project is designed to deliver drinking water to nearly 25,000 rural and 67 urban habitations, said Telangana Panchyati Raj Minister KT Rama Rao recently at an event in the national capital.
The Water and Sanitation Ministry official added that Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan too have planned water grids to provide drinking water to all rural houses from safe surface sources through mega scheme.
This is being done through funding from external international agencies like World Bank, JICA and domestic sources like Nabard and Hudco, he added.
Over the years, there has been massive over-exploitation of groundwater mostly to meet irrigation demand and increasing scarcity in drinking water during summer months.
The status of groundwater development is more than 100 per cent in Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan. More than 15 per cent of the total blocks in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu are over-exploited or critical in terms of ground water development.
Due to deeper drilling of aquifers, drinking water sources are increasingly becoming contaminated with natural contaminants like fluoride, arsenic and salinity. The piped water availability will also meet these problems, the official added.