Lok Sabha Question No. 2537 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-08-02
Subject: NRDWP and Swajal Project
Ministry: DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION
Asked by: SHOBHA KARANDLAJE

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF DRINKING WATER & SANITATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2537 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02.08.2018

## NRDWP and Swajal Project

## 2537. KUMARI SHOBHA KARANDLAJE:

Will  the  Minister  of  DRINKING WATER  AND  SANITATION be pleased to state

(a)  whether  the  Government  has  held  a  national  consultation  on  National  Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) and Swajal Project recently and if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether the Government proposes reforms in NRDWP and if so, the salient features thereof;

(c)  whether Swajal Project has been launched in 115 aspirational districts and if so,  the  special  features,  financial  outlay,  objectives  and  implementation  plan thereof;

(d) whether the Government has announced modernisation of 2000 Water Quality Testing Laboratories and if so, the details thereof, State-wise; and

(e)  whether  the  Government proposes to  spend  Rs. 1000  crore  to provide  clean drinking  water  to  27,544  arsenic  and  fluoride  affected habitations  and  if  so,  the details thereof, State-wise?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION (SHRI RAMESH CHANDAPPA JIGAJINAGI)

(a)Yes Madam. 'National Consultation on NRDWP & Swajal' was held on 14.06.2018 with  the  Ministers  In-Charge  of  Rural  Water  Supply  of  the  States  to  deliberate  on reforms in restructured NRDWP and discuss way forward including Swajal.

(b)Union Cabinet has  reformed  /  restructured  National  Rural  Drinking  Water  Program (NRDWP) in November, 2017 to make it competitive, outcome based and result oriented withfocus  mainly  on  piped  water  supply  schemes.  While  doing  the  restructuring,  the overall  objective  of  the  programme  has  been  aligned  to  provide  adequate,  safe  and sustainable  drinking  water  to  rural  population.The  Ministry  supplements  the  efforts  of states  financially  and  technically  to  provide  safe  and  adequate  drinking  water  to  rural population.

Under reformed NRDWP, the norm adopted for providing safe 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. Since water is a state subject, State Governments have been given the flexibility to adopt their own higher service delivery norm based on water availability, demand and capital cost involved and funding provided.

The  overall  allocation  to  the  states  under  NRDWP  is  decided  based  on  pre-approved criteria  of  (i)  Rural  Population  in  the  State  as  per  the  Census  of  India,  (ii)  Rural Scheduled Caste (SC) & Scheduled Tribe (ST) Population as per the Census of India, (iii)  States  under  Desert  Development  Programme  (DDP),  Drought  Prone  Areas Programme (DPAP), Hill Areas Development Programme (HADP) and special category Hill  States  in  terms  of  rural  areas  and  (iv)  Population  (as  on  31st  March  of  preceding year)  residing  in  habitations  affected  by  all  chemical  contaminants  including  heavy metals.

Release of fund to states under NRDWP under various components is as under:

- 50 % of allocation is released as first instalment.
- 25%  Sustainability  (Functionality)  component  of  allocation  is  released  on  the basis of a third party evaluation study of completed piped water supply schemes in States / UTs as part of second instalment.
- 25 % of allocation will be released in reimbursement cum competition mode as part of second instalment.

(c)  Yes Madam. Swajal has been launched in all the aspirational districts identified by NITI  Aayog.  It  is  a  community-designed,  implemented,  maintained,  managed  single village piped water supply scheme under NRDWP. The scheme would be implemented in the villages that are (i) located in the safe block identified by Central Ground Water Board (ii) preferably in an Open Defecation Free (ODF) village and (iii) not having any piped water supply scheme.

5% of  the  funds  under  NRDWP  can  be  utilized  by  the  State  for  funding  the  scheme which can be met out of the provisions of 'Flexi fund'.

The funding pattern of Swajal is as under:

| North Eastern States and Himalayan States   | 81:09:10 (Centre: State: Gram Panchayat)   |
|---------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|
| Other States                                | 45:45:10                                   |
|                                             | (Centre: State: Gram Panchayat)            |

(d)  Under  the  NRDWP, up to   5% of  coverage  funds can be used by  states  for  water quality  monitoring  &  surveillance  activities    which  inter-alia  includes  setting  up  of  & upgrading existing Water Quality Testing Laboratories at various levels. It is the State Governments  who plan, design,  approve,  execute  and  maintain  Water  Quality  Testing Laboratory (WQTL) for ensuring safe drinking water to rural population.The details of Water Quality Testing Laboratories set up so far is placed at Annexure-I.

(e)  National  Water Quality Sub-Mission (NWQSM) had been launched on 22.03.17 to provide  safe  drinking  water  to  27,544  Arsenic  and  Fluoride  affected  habitations  by March  2021  with  total  proposed  outlay  of  Rs.  25,000  Cr.  (Central  share  Rs.  12,500 Crore).

The  releases  under  NWQSM  are  made  as  per  the  physical  and  financial  progress  of various schemes placed by the states. The Ministry has set aside Rs. 1000 Cr in 2018-19 towards this in 2018-19.Till date, Rs. 2,881 Cr. has been released to various states which includes Rs. 55.67 Cr. released to the state of West Bengal in 2018-19.

## Annexure referred to in the reply to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2537 due for reply on 2/8/2018

State-wise number of Water Quality Testing Laboratory.

| S.No.   | State             |   State Labs (without mobile labs) |   District Labs (without mobile labs) |   Block Labs (without mobile labs) |   SubDivision Labs (without mobile labs) |   Mobile Labs (State/ District/ Block/ Sub- division Level) |   Total Labs (State/ District/ Block/ Sub- division Level) |
|---------|-------------------|------------------------------------|---------------------------------------|------------------------------------|------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1       | Andaman &Nicobar  |                                  1 |                                     0 |                                  0 |                                        0 |                                                           2 |                                                          3 |
| 2       | Andhra Pradesh    |                                  1 |                                    32 |                                  0 |                                       73 |                                                           0 |                                                        106 |
| 3       | Arunachal Pradesh |                                  1 |                                    16 |                                  0 |                                       31 |                                                           1 |                                                         49 |
| 4       | Assam             |                                  1 |                                    29 |                                  0 |                                       54 |                                                          22 |                                                        106 |
| 5       | Bihar             |                                  1 |                                    41 |                                  0 |                                        1 |                                                           0 |                                                         43 |
| 6       | Chhattisgarh      |                                  1 |                                    27 |                                  1 |                                       24 |                                                          18 |                                                         71 |
| 7       | Goa               |                                  1 |                                     0 |                                  1 |                                        9 |                                                           0 |                                                         11 |
| 8       | Gujarat           |                                  1 |                                    32 |                                 48 |                                        0 |                                                           6 |                                                         87 |
| 9       | Haryana           |                                  0 |                                    21 |                                  0 |                                       22 |                                                           0 |                                                         43 |
| 10      | Himachal Pradesh  |                                  1 |                                    14 |                                  0 |                                       30 |                                                           0 |                                                         45 |
| 11      | Jammu & Kashmir   |                                  0 |                                    22 |                                  3 |                                       75 |                                                           0 |                                                        100 |
| 12      | Jharkhand         |                                  1 |                                    26 |                                  1 |                                        7 |                                                           5 |                                                         40 |
| 13      | Karnataka         |                                  1 |                                    44 |                                 39 |                                      107 |                                                          46 |                                                        237 |
| 14      | Kerala            |                                  1 |                                    14 |                                  0 |                                       33 |                                                           0 |                                                         48 |
| 15      | Madhya Pradesh    |                                  1 |                                    51 |                                  3 |                                      106 |                                                           0 |                                                        161 |
| 16      | Maharashtra       |                                  1 |                                    63 |                                  2 |                                      140 |                                                           0 |                                                        206 |
| 17      | Manipur           |                                  1 |                                     9 |                                  0 |                                        2 |                                                           0 |                                                         12 |
| 18      | Meghalaya         |                                  1 |                                     7 |                                  0 |                                       22 |                                                           0 |                                                         30 |
| 19      | Mizoram           |                                  1 |                                     8 |                                  0 |                                       18 |                                                           0 |                                                         27 |
| 20      | Nagaland          |                                  0 |                                    11 |                                  0 |                                        1 |                                                           2 |                                                         14 |
| 21      | Odisha            |                                  1 |                                    32 |                                  0 |                                       44 |                                                           0 |                                                         77 |
| 22      | Puducherry        |                                  0 |                                     2 |                                  0 |                                        0 |                                                           0 |                                                          2 |
| 23      | Punjab            |                                  3 |                                    22 |                                  8 |                                        0 |                                                           1 |                                                         34 |
| 24      | Rajasthan         |                                  1 |                                    33 |                                165 |                                        0 |                                                           0 |                                                        199 |
| 25      | Sikkim            |                                  0 |                                     2 |                                  0 |                                        0 |                                                           0 |                                                          2 |
| 26      | Tamil Nadu        |                                  1 |                                    34 |                                  0 |                                       55 |                                                           0 |                                                         90 |
| 27      | Telangana         |                                  1 |                                    19 |                                  0 |                                       56 |                                                           0 |                                                         76 |
| 28      | Tripura           |                                  1 |                                     8 |                                  7 |                                        6 |                                                           0 |                                                         22 |
| 29      | Uttar Pradesh     |                                  1 |                                    76 |                                  3 |                                        3 |                                                           0 |                                                         83 |
| 30      | Uttarakhand       |                                  0 |                                    29 |                                  1 |                                       14 |                                                           0 |                                                         44 |
| 31      | West Bengal       |                                  1 |                                    19 |                                  1 |                                      201 |                                                           0 |                                                        222 |
|         | Total             |                                 27 |                                   743 |                                283 |                                     1134 |                                                         103 |                                                       2290 |

## Annexure-I