MINISTER OF DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION
(SUSHREE UMA BHARTI)
(a) to (e) A Statement is laid on the table of the house.
Statement referred to in the reply to Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 191 due for answer on 08.03.2018
(a) National Rural Drinking Water Program (NRDWP) is a centrally sponsored scheme wherein this Ministry gives technical and financial assistance to states / UTs to provide safe drinking water to rural population. Under NRDWP, at present the minimum norm for providing drinking water supply in rural areas is 40 litres per capita per day (lpcd) which is required to meet the needs of drinking, cooking, bathing, washing utensils and ablution, based on basic minimum need. State Governments have been given the flexibility to fix their own higher norm based on water availability, demand and capital cost involved. Under the NRDWP, supply of the minimum required quantity of safe drinking water is monitored in terms of coverage of rural habitations. The funds under the programme are allocated to the States/UTs on the basis of a pre approved criteria and is fixed at the beginning of financial year on the basis of Annual Action Plan (AAP) submitted by the States /UTs. The States have been delegated the powers to select, approve and implement the drinking water supply projects.
As per information available on Integrated Management Information System (IMIS), 77.64 % rural habitations is Fully Covered (i.e. getting more than 40 litre per capita per day safe drinking water), 18.22% rural habitations is Partially Covered (i.e. getting less than 40 litre per capita safe drinking water) and 4.14% rural habitation is Quality Affected (i.e. containing at least one chemical contaminant like Iron, Arsenic, Fluoride etc.)
(b) As per information available on IMIS, State / UT-wise percentage of the population, that does not have access to piped water supply is at Annexure.
(c) This Ministry has taken following steps to tackle the problem of drinking water quality in States / UTs:
• NRDWP has been restructured wherein 10% weightage for making allocation of funds to States / UTs is based on Population residing in habitations having affected by chemical contaminants.
• 2% of total allocation is earmarked for Japanese Encephalitis (JE) / Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) affected districts.
• Rs. 2421.64 crore has been released till 05.03.2018 under National Water Quality Submission (NWQSM) to provide safe drinking water to arsenic / fluoride affected habitations.
• 5% (max.) of every release can be utilised for Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance activities.
(d) & (e) As far as NRDWP release at the central level is concerned, there are no unspent balances of the allocated amount every year. The Ministry is able to release most of allocation to the States. The unspent funds lying with the State /UT at the end of a financial year is spent in the next year. The effort of the Ministry has been to release due allocation of funds to the States well in time after obtaining the utilization certificates and other requisite documents.
Recently, this Ministry has restructured National Rural Drinking Water Program (NRDWP) to make it competitive, outcome based and result oriented and focuses mainly on piped water supply schemes. Moreover, under restructured NRDWP, release of fund under various components is as under:
• 50 % of allocation will be released as first instalment as per approved criteria of allocation of funds to the States / UTs.
• 25% Sustainability (Functionality) component of allocation will be released on the basis of a third party evaluation study of completed piped water supply schemes in States / UTs.
• 25 % (in reimbursement cum competition mode) of allocation will be released after complete utilisation of available central fund and pre-financing & utilization of this part of allocation along with state matching share by the States / UTs within a time frame.
Under NRDWP, the execution of rural water supply scheme is done by the respective State Government. States are free to plan, design and execute Rural Drinking Water Supply Scheme (RWSS) after getting the same approved by the State Level Scheme Sanctioning Committee (SLSSC). States are advised regularly to monitor the expenditure and reduce the unspent balance.
Further, as on 05.03.2018, out of total allocation of Rs. 7050 crore, Rs. 6026.34 crore has been released to States and rest of the fund will be released by the end of the current financial year.
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