Lok Sabha Question No. 191 (STARRED), answered on 2018-03-08
Subject: National Rural Drinking Water Programme
Ministry: DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION
Asked by: KIRIT PREMJIBHAI SOLANKI

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 191

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 08.03.2018

## National Rural Drinking Water Programme

## *191. DR. KIRIT P. SOLANKI:

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

- (a)  the  salient  features  of  the  National  Rural  Drinking  Water  Programme (NRDWP) and the current status of its implementation in the country;
- (b)  the  percentage  of  the  population,  that  does  not  have  access  to  piped  water supply, State/UT-wise;
- (c)  the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  under  the  Programme  to  tackle  the problem of drinking water quality;
- (d) whether it is true that the implementation of the Programme is suffering from problems like unutilized funds and missed targets, etc.; and
- (e) if so, the steps taken by the Government to address these problems?

## ANSWER

## 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  prefinancing & 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.

| Annexure referred to in reply to part (b) of Lok Sabha Starred Q. No- 191 due for reply on 08.03.2018   | Annexure referred to in reply to part (b) of Lok Sabha Starred Q. No- 191 due for reply on 08.03.2018   | Annexure referred to in reply to part (b) of Lok Sabha Starred Q. No- 191 due for reply on 08.03.2018   |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| S.No.                                                                                                   | State                                                                                                   | % of Population not having access to piped water supply                                                 |
| 1                                                                                                       | ANDAMAN&NICOBAR                                                                                         | 8.64                                                                                                    |
| 2                                                                                                       | ANDHRA PRADESH                                                                                          | 4.18                                                                                                    |
| 3                                                                                                       | ARUNACHAL PRADESH                                                                                       | 39.67                                                                                                   |
| 4                                                                                                       | ASSAM                                                                                                   | 54.07                                                                                                   |
| 5                                                                                                       | BIHAR                                                                                                   | 89.07                                                                                                   |
| 6                                                                                                       | CHHATTISGARH                                                                                            | 64.64                                                                                                   |
| 7                                                                                                       | GOA                                                                                                     | 100                                                                                                     |
| 8                                                                                                       | GUJARAT                                                                                                 | 3.35                                                                                                    |
| 9                                                                                                       | HARYANA                                                                                                 | 0.82                                                                                                    |
| 10                                                                                                      | HIMACHALPRADESH                                                                                         | 3.69                                                                                                    |
| 11                                                                                                      | JAMMU&KASHMIR                                                                                           | 5.57                                                                                                    |
| 12                                                                                                      | JHARKHAND                                                                                               | 73.56                                                                                                   |
| 13                                                                                                      | KARNATAKA                                                                                               | 2.17                                                                                                    |
| 14                                                                                                      | KERALA                                                                                                  | 0                                                                                                       |
| 15                                                                                                      | MADHYAPRADESH                                                                                           | 62.44                                                                                                   |
| 16                                                                                                      | MAHARASHTRA                                                                                             | 16.68                                                                                                   |
| 17                                                                                                      | MANIPUR                                                                                                 | 11.42                                                                                                   |
| 18                                                                                                      | MEGHALAYA                                                                                               | 31.23                                                                                                   |
| 19                                                                                                      | MIZORAM                                                                                                 | 7.13                                                                                                    |
| 20                                                                                                      | NAGALAND                                                                                                | 5.64                                                                                                    |
| 21                                                                                                      | ODISHA                                                                                                  | 56.97                                                                                                   |
| 22                                                                                                      | PUDUCHERRY                                                                                              | 43.55                                                                                                   |
| 23                                                                                                      | PUNJAB                                                                                                  | 13.32                                                                                                   |
| 24                                                                                                      | RAJASTHAN                                                                                               | 46.3                                                                                                    |
| 25                                                                                                      | SIKKIM                                                                                                  | 0.22                                                                                                    |
| 26                                                                                                      | TAMIL NADU                                                                                              | 0                                                                                                       |
| 27                                                                                                      | TELANGANA                                                                                               | 1.24                                                                                                    |
| 28                                                                                                      | TRIPURA                                                                                                 | 13.74                                                                                                   |
| 29                                                                                                      | UTTAR PRADESH                                                                                           | 84.29                                                                                                   |
| 30                                                                                                      | UTTARAKHAND                                                                                             | 24.96                                                                                                   |
| 31                                                                                                      | WEST BENGAL                                                                                             | 42.2                                                                                                    |
|                                                                                                         | Total                                                                                                   | 44.55                                                                                                   |

(source: format C-30)