Lok Sabha Question No. 5261 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-07-25
Subject: Failure of Drinking Water Supply Programmes
Ministry: JAL SHAKTI
Asked by: Shivkumar Chanabasappa Udasi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF JAL SHAKTI DEPARTMENT OF DRINKING WATER & SANITATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.5261 TO BE ANSWERED ON 25.07.2019

## Failure of Drinking Water Supply Programmes

## 5261. SHRI SHIVAKUMAR C. UDASI:

Will the Minister of JAL SHAKTI be pleased to state:

- (a) whether very extreme drought condition prevails in the country if so, the details of the measures being taken to meet the situation;
- (b) whether various drinking water  supply  programmes in  rural areas of the country have failed to give the desired result of providing safe drinking water; and
- (c) if so, the reasons therefor and the funds allocated by the Government from time to time?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FORJAL SHAKTI (SHRI RATTAN LAL KATARIA)

(a) No Sir. However, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Jal Shakti have taken number of measures to mitigate the situation of drought in the rural areas of the country. Ministry of Jal Shakti has launched Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA), which is a time- bound, mission-mode water conservation campaign. Under JSA, there are five intervention areas which include, inter alia, water conservation and rain water harvesting which would help in drought mitigation. In addition, Central Government has taken following interventions to address the issue of access to potable water:

- ( i ) An advisory has been issued by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation on 20th May 2019 to States on water conservation and to meet the drinking water requirements of rural areas during scarcity.
- ( i i ) Further,  Cabinet  Secretariat,  vide  its  letter  dated  29th  May  2019  addressed  to selective States,  recommended  action  plans  for  dealing with  drought like situation.
- ( i i i ) The Hon'ble PM has written letters to all Sarpanches in the country motivating them to take up water conservation activities like de-silting and cleaning of water bodies, rain water harvesting etc with people participation.

Further,  as  announced  in  the  Union  Budget  Speech  2019-20,  it  has  been  envisaged  to ensure piped water supply to all rural households by 2024 under the Jal Jeevan Mission.

(b)  to  (c)  Water  being  a  state  subject,  Department  of  Drinking  Water  and  Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti provides assistance to State government for improving the coverage of safe drinking water in rural areas. States are empowered to plan, design, approve and execute  rural  drinking  water  supply  schemes.  Under  National  Rural  Drinking  Water Programme (NRDWP) , status of providing drinking water is maintained in terms of Fully Covered  (FC)  Habitations  (i.e.  having  access  to  more  than  40  liters  per  capita  per  day (lpcd) safe drinking water), Partially Covered (PC) (i.e. having access to less than 40 lpcd safe  drinking  water)  and  Quality  Affected  (QA)  habitation  (i.e.  having  access  to  water from  unsafe  sources).  As  reported  by  States  on  Integrated  Management  Information System (IMIS) of the Ministry, out of 17,25,808 rural habitation, 13,98,346 (i.e. 81.03%) rural  habitations  are  getting  more  than  40  litre  per  capita  per  day  (lpcd)  safe  drinking water as on 22.07.2019.

Under NRDWP, details of fund allocated and released by the Government from 2014-15 to 2019-20 is as under:

| Financial Year   |   Funds Allocated (Rs. in crores) |   Fund Released (Rs. in crores) |
|------------------|-----------------------------------|---------------------------------|
| 2014-15          |                              9250 |                         9053.23 |
| 2015-16          |                              4373 |                         4206.99 |
| 2016-17          |                              6000 |                         5875.16 |
| 2017-18          |                              7050 |                         6968.15 |
| 2018-19          |                              5500 |                         5466.24 |