(a) the status of implementation of drinking water and sanitation schemes in the country including the NCT of Delhi;
(b) whether it is a fact that the drinking water supplied in Delhi is unsafe; and
(c) if so, the details of the action taken or proposed to be taken by the Government in this regard?
MINISTER FOR JAL SHAKTI
(SHRI GAJENDRA SINGH SHEKHAWAT)
(a) to (c) A Statement of reply is laid on the Table of the House.
Statement referred to in the reply to Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 438 due for reply on 25.03.2021
(a) Government of India, in partnership with States/ UTs, is implementing Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) - Har Ghar Jal to enable every rural household in the country to have potable water of prescribed quality in adequate quantity, on regular and long-term basis through tap water connection, by 2024.
At the time of announcement of Jal Jeevan Mission on 15th August, 2019, out of 18.93 Crore rural households, 3.23 Crore households (17%) were reported to have tap water supply. Since then, 3.92 Crore rural households have been provided tap water connections. Thus, as on date, out of 19.19 Crore rural households across the country, 7.15 Crore (37%) have tap water supply.
States of Goa & Telangana and UT of Andaman & Nicobar Islands have become ‘Har Ghar Jal Rajya’ and every rural households in 55 districts across the country are having tap water supply.
UT of Delhi has informed that out of 112 villages, 111 villages have piped water supply and the remaining one village is planned to be covered by June, 2021.
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), being the nodal Ministry for Water and Sanitation in Urban Areas has informed that Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), a Centrally Sponsored Scheme is being implemented in selected 500 cities across the country to primarily focus on providing safe and assured drinking water universally and to ensure substantial improvement in the sewerage coverage and septage management.
Against the target to provide 139 lakh water tap connections to achieve universal coverage of drinking water in the 500 AMRUT cities, so far 102 lakh new water tap connections (73%) have been provided in convergence with other schemes.
In NCT of Delhi, against the target to provide 10.61 lakh water tap connections, so far 6.78 lakh new water tap connections have been provided under AMRUT and in convergence with other schemes. Further, Delhi Jal Board has also informed that piped water supply has already been provided in 1,573 out of total 1,799 unauthorised colonies and the work is in progress for laying of water network in balance technically feasible colonies by 2022.
Government had launched Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) to make the rural areas of the country Open Defecation Free (ODF) by providing access to toilets to all the rural households. More than 10 Crore individual household latrines were constructed under the programme. As a result, all the villages in the country declared themselves ODF as on 2nd October, 2019. Having achieved the outcomes of ODF, Government is implementing Phase-II of SBM (G) with focus on sustainability of ODF status and to cover all villages with Solid and Liquid Waste Management. To make all statutory towns (including NCT of Delhi) ODF, SBM (Urban) was started on 2nd October, 2014 and against the target of 4,372 cities, 4,360 cities have already become ODF including all the 5 Urban Local Bodies of NCT of Delhi.
Further, as informed by MoHUA, against the target to provide 145 lakh new sewer connections in the 500 AMRUT cities, 68 lakh sewer connections have been provided in convergence with other schemes. Similarly, against the target to provide 2.52 lakh new sewer connections in NCT of Delhi, 1.66 lakh sewer connections have been provided in convergence with other schemes. As informed by UT of Delhi, at present 79% of population is already connected to sewerage network and action plan along with timelines has been prepared for covering unsewered areas.
(b) & (c) As informed by Delhi Jal Board, provisioning of safe and wholesome drinking water is the mandate of the board and steps are being undertaken from time to time for achieving the same. The status of total number of water samples collected and tested in the current financial year depicts that % age of satisfactory samples, are well above the prescribed limit of guidelines of World Health Organization. The details are annexed. Further, to ensure the drinking water quality parameters as per BIS standard, 09 Quality Control laboratories are working round the clock at water treatment plants and 08 zonal laboratories are functional in different parts of the UT for testing 500 water samples from distribution network upto consumer end. Also, water quality monitoring activities have further been strengthened recently, which inter alia include ward-wise surveillance, collection of samples and analysis at site as well as zonal labs.
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