(a) whether the States are required to set up a Water and Sanitation Support Organisation (WSSO) to take up the support activities in the water and sanitation fields;
(b) the details of activities undertaken by WSSO;
(c) the number/details of the States/UTs which do not have WSSOs; and
(d) the steps taken to set up WSSOs in these States?
MINISTER OF STATE FOR DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION (SHRI RAM KRIPAL YADAV )
(a) Yes Madam, as per National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) Guidelines, all States will have to set up Water and Sanitation Support Organization (WSSO) under State Water and Sanitation Mission (SWSM) to deal with Water Quality Monitoring &Surveillance (WQM&S), setting up of Drinking Water Testing Labs (DWT Labs), Management Information System (MIS) /Computerization, Monitoring &Evaluation (M&E), Information Education and Communication (IEC) , Human Resources Development (HRD) ,Water &Sanitation Support Organisation (WSSO) , Communication & Capacity Development Unit (CCDU)), Research &Development(R&D) etc. The CCDUs for water and sanitation should be merged with the WSSO. These are activities for which 100% fund are provided as Support Funds by Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India.
(b) The main activities of WSSO are as follows:Water
# This organization would deal with software aspects of Rural Water Supply sector.
# The organizations main function would be to act as a facilitating agency and would function as a bridge between the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) /Board and the Community Organizations, assisting the PanchayatiRaj Institutions (PRI)s and Gram Panchayat Water &Sanitation Committees (GPWSC)/Village Water &Sanitation Committees(VWSC) to prepare water security plan and plan, implement and maintain RWS projects based on the water security plan;
# Take HRD and IEC activities through the CCDU which has been merged with the WSSO.
# Take up evaluation studies, impact assessment studies, R&D activities and share the finding with PHED for corrective action;
# Take up MIS and computerization programmes, Geographical InformationSystem (GIS) mapping and online monitoring systems, including those for water quality monitoring & surveillance. Sanitation
# Conduct Training Needs Assessment for Sanitation.
# Prepare Capacity Building Plan for PRI members, GPWSC/VWSC members and Engineering /technical staff.
# Identify Key Resource Centres at State and district/regional level.
# Take up training programmes through National, State and district Resource Centres and through in-house resource persons.
# Prepare Annual IEC plan based on Communication Strategy for Sanitation sectors.
# Create awareness amongst the community and stakeholders.
(c)& (d) WSSOs/ CCDUs have been set up in all the States.