National Rural Drinking Water Programme

The National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP), initiated in 2009, is a significant centrally sponsored initiative aimed at improving rural water supply across India. This programme provides crucial financial and technical assistance to State Governments, ensuring the sustained provision of safe drinking water for drinking, cooking, and other domestic purposes to rural residents. Recently, the Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, approved the continuation and restructuring of this essential programme. The enhancements focus on making it more outcome-based, competitive, and aligned with long-term sustainability goals to ensure high-quality service delivery to rural communities.

Objectives and National Goal

The primary goal of the NRDWP is to offer every rural individual access to safe and adequate water for drinking and cooking needs while adhering to quality standards. The programme aims to cover quality-affected and underserved areas, ensuring clean and sufficient water supply.

The strategic framework for achieving these targets includes:

Ensuring safe and adequate drinking water solutions to underserved, partially served, and slipped-back habitations.
Providing potable water to areas with water quality issues, enhancing public health.
Encouraging states to achieve local-level drinking water security and sustainability, thus empowering communities.
Regular support activities to maintain efficient water systems and infrastructure.
Helping regions under the Desert Development Programme tackle challenges related to low rainfall and limited water availability.
Addressing drinking water concerns in rural areas during times of natural disasters to maintain resilience.

Funding Pattern

The allocation of funds for this initiative to states is based on several criteria, such as:

The size of the rural population, ensuring that larger populations receive adequate resources.
The proportion of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) within the rural population to promote inclusivity.
Characteristics of the region, including desert, drought-prone, and hilly areas, ensuring fair distribution.
The extent of scheme management devolution to Panchayats, promoting decentralized governance.

Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance

The Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance initiative began in February 2006, with a 3% funding allocation. Its objectives include:

Empowering rural communities through Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) activities, fostering a sense of ownership and awareness.
Training five grassroots workers in each Gram Panchayat, including ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, science teachers, high school girls, panchayat members, and retired army officials. Training extends to five Gram Panchayat workers, two state-level representatives, four district representatives, and five block-level representatives.

The Latest Directives

The restructuring of the scheme has introduced new directives, which include:

Alignment with the 14th Finance Commission cycle, extending until March 2020.
Allocation of 2% of funds specifically for areas affected by Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES).
The introduction of the National Water Quality Sub-Mission (NWQSM) by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in 2017, targeting the needs of areas affected by Arsenic and Fluoride.
State Governments are tasked with providing upfront financing for agreed schemes, followed by reimbursements from central funds.
The second installment of funds will be tied to the independent evaluation of fully functional piped water supply schemes.
INR 23,050 crore has been earmarked for the programme for 2017-18 to 2019-20, indicating substantial investment.
Enhanced focus on piped water supply, improving service delivery, and covering water quality-affected habitations.
Supporting Open Defecation Free (ODF) declared villages, SAGY GPs, Integrated Action Plan (IAP) districts, and Border Out Posts (BOP) with efficient piped water supply systems.

This strategic program emphasizes improving rural water infrastructure and the quality of life for India's rural population. Visit IndiaFilings for more comprehensive insights into rural development initiatives and policies.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about National Rural Drinking Water Programme.

The National Rural Drinking Water Programme is a Centrally sponsored scheme introduced in 2009 that provides financial and technical assistance to State Governments for providing safe drinking water to rural inhabitants. It aims to ensure every rural person has access to safe and adequate drinking water for domestic needs on a sustainable basis.

The key objectives of the National Rural Drinking Water Programme are to provide every rural person with safe drinking water for cooking and other domestic essentials, meet minimum water quality standards, cover all quality-affected and underserved habitations, and encourage states to achieve drinking water security at the local level.

Funds are allocated to states based on criteria such as rural population, rural SC and ST population, presence of desert, drought-prone and hilly areas, extent of devolution of scheme management to Panchayats, and water quality monitoring.

Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance, launched in 2006, aims to create awareness among rural communities through Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities and provide training to grassroot workers and officials at various levels for monitoring water quality.

Recent directives include extending the programme till March 2020, allocating 2% funds for areas affected by Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome, initiating the National Water Quality Sub-Mission, introducing pro-financing by states, releasing funds based on functional status of piped water supply schemes, and approving INR 23,050 crore for the programme till 2019-20.

The restructured programme will focus on piped water supply, enhanced service delivery, coverage of water quality affected habitations, Open Defecation Free (ODF) declared villages, Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) GPs, Integrated Action Plan (IAP) districts, Border Out Posts (BOP) with piped water supply, and proper Operation & Maintenance of water supply assets.

The programme aims to provide portable drinking water to habitations affected by water quality issues. Additionally, the newly initiated National Water Quality Sub-Mission specifically caters to the need for clean water in about 28,000 Arsenic and Fluoride affected habitations.

The Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance component was launched with a funding of 3% of the overall programme budget.

One of the objectives of the National Rural Drinking Water Programme is to mitigate drinking water issues in rural areas in the event of natural calamities, ensuring the availability of safe drinking water during such situations.

The programme aims to help areas covered under the Desert Development Programme (DDP) in tackling the extreme conditions of low rainfall and poor water availability, by providing safe and adequate drinking water supply to these regions.