About Organisation :

The Rural Drinking Water Supply sector started in 1972-73 with the launch of Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) by the Govt. of India. The second generation programme was launched in 1991-92 as Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission. With the involvement of community in planning, implementation and management of drinking water supply schemes the Sector Reform Projects came up in 1999-2000 as third generation programme which later turned to Swajaldharain 2002. To emphasize on ensuring sustainability of water availability in terms of potability, adequacy, convenience, affordability and equity with decentralized approach of involving PRI and community organizations the fourth generation programme viz. National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRWDP) has come into force since 01.04.2009 with a vision “Safe Drinking Water for all, at all times in rural areas.”

The Drinking Water Supply is very important issue in the present times in the light of the increasing health awareness among the rural public. One of the most important objectives of the State Government is to provide safe drinking water to the rural population under BASUDHA programme.

The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Department is nodal agency in the State for providing drinking water and Sanitation facilities in rural areas under RWS sector. The drinking water facilities are being provided by various types such as

  • Spot sources (Bore Wells fitted with Hand Pumps)
  • Protected Water Supply Schemes (for one habitation/village)
  • Comprehensive Protected Water Supply Schemes (for a group of habitations/ villages)

Objectives of Rural Drinking Water Programme:

  • Ensuring permanent drinking water security in rural area of the district.
  • Implementation of measures for ensuring village level water security to improve / augment existing drinking water sources, conjunctive use of ground water, surface water and rainwater harvesting
  • Service Delivery for its entire design period of quality water as per prescribed standards at supply and consumption points
  • Basis of planning decentralized water supply system portability; reliability; sustainability; convenience; equity; and consumers preference
  • Enabling communities to monitor and maintain surveillance on drinking water sources
  • Provide access to information through online reporting mechanism; information on public domain to bring in transparency, accountability and information decision making

Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance

Under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme the issue of Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance has been given due emphasis. The monitoring and surveillance results from the habitations are also to be put on the database of the Department and monitored to ensure drinking water security at the household level.

The National Rural Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance Programme launched in February 2005 has now been merged with NRDWP.
Broadly, the programme is as follows:

The approach, strategy and mode of implementation of the WQM&S programme as detailed in the “Implementation Manual on National Rural Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance Programme” issued by RGNDWM, Department of Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India (November 2004) needs to be adopted.

  • All drinking water sources should be tested at least twice a year for bacteriological contamination and once a year for chemical contamination.
  • Under NRDWP, States may establish Water

Testing Laboratories at the Sub- Division level with a provision of testing few selected chemical parameters (need based) and biological parameters.

The existing Field Testing Kits (FTK) may continue to be used for primary detection of chemical and biological contamination of all the drinking water sources in the villages. Fund provided for procurement of FTKs under National Rural Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance Programme launched in February 2005 should be fully utilized.

The services of five GP level persons who have been trained under National Rural Drinking Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance programme since February 2006 i.e. ASHA, Anganwadi Workers, School Teachers, GP members, Social Workers etc. will continue to be utilized for the surveillance programme.

Monitoring is to be done by entering the test results of all sources tested by the designated labs on the IMIS of DDWS. The habitation and household data must be collected by two village level members.VWSC member selected in the Gram Sabha and fully accountable to the Panchayat Level.

Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin)

The Government of Odisha is committed to providing better access to safe water and sanitation to the entire population. Over the past decade, the state has taken a number of steps to improve access to sanitation services – through implementation of Central Rural Sanitation Programmeme (CRSP) and Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), later renamed Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA). On 2 October 2014, the Government of India (GoI) re-launched NBA as Swachh Bharat Mission(SBM). Its goal is to make India Open Defecation Free (ODF) by 2019 through construction of individual, cluster and community toilets. The SBM has two components – Urban and Rural (Gramin). The rural component seeks is to transform rural communities into Swachh villages which are ODF, where no one defecates in the open, and systems are set in place for scientific disposal of waste. It aims to keep villages clean through solid and liquid waste management through gram panchayats.

ODF definition

Open Defecation Free is the termination of faecal-oral transmission, defined by:

  • No visible faeces found in the environment/village (no visible open defecation sites)
  • Every household as well as public/community institutions using safe technology option for disposal of faeces (safe technology option means no contamination of surface soil, ground
    water or surface water; excreta inaccessible to flies or animals; no handling of fresh excreta and freedom from odour and unsightly condition)
  • Access to safe toilets by all
  • Access to safe toilets by children in schools and anganwadi centres(AWCs)
  • Safe disposal of children’s excreta
  • Hand washing at critical times (after fingers come in contact with faeces), and discussion on the use of safe drinking water in the community as an important hygiene issue

OBJECTIVES

The main objectives of the SBM(G) are as under:

Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin)

  1. Bring about an improvement in the general quality of life in the rural areas, by promoting cleanliness, hygiene and eliminating open defecation.
  2. Accelerate sanitation coverage in rural areas to achieve the vision of Swachh Bharat by 2nd October 2019.
  3. Motivate Communities and Panchayat Raj Institutions to adopt sustainable sanitation practices and facilities through awareness creation and health education
  4. Encourage cost effective and appropriate technologies for ecologically safe and sustainable sanitation.
  5. Develop wherever required, Community managed sanitation systems focusing on scientific Solid & Liquid Waste Management systems for overall cleanliness in the rural areas.