Eleventh Five Year Plan

Drinking Water, Sanitation, and Clean Living Conditions 167with user-friendly field test kits for testing bothbacteriological and chemical contaminants followedby testing of the samples at district- and State-levellaboratories. Such initiatives need to be extended tothe other regular programmes under the ARWSPalso. Involving the community in bringing qualityand sustainability to the village-level drinking watersupply systems should be encouraged, rewarded, andrecognized in an appropriate manner along the linesof the Nirmal Gram Puraskar that has galvanizedcommunities and local bodies for an enthusiasticand effective response to the TSC of the GoI.5.29 While our programme guidelines do recognizethe role of women in planning and post implementationmaintenance with some success stories ofwomen maintaining the hand pumps and tube wells,the success has to spread far and wide. Of late, thecountry is realizing the potential of women in theform of SHGs. Women SHGs are functioning wellin States such as Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. WomenSHGs also should be given the responsibility forcollection of maintenance funds after the sourceis handed over to them for maintenance. WomenSHGs should be encouraged for taking up the O&Mof the existing functional systems. If the source isdysfunctional, the State should incur one-time expenditureto set it right and encourage SHG to take themover.5.30 The resources required could be easily mobilizedif the various programmes can be converged to workin complementary ways.5.31 The National Rural Employment GuaranteeProgramme has seven identified work componentrelated to water. The Rural Development Ministry isimplementing major watershed schemes through theDepartment of Land Resources. There are otherprogrammes such as Backward Region Grant Fund,artificial recharge of groundwater schemes andrain water harvesting, restoration of water bodiesscheme (both pilot and external assisted) by theMinistry of Water Resources, the National Projectfor Renovation of Water Bodies and schemes such asthe National Afforestation Programme, River ValleyProject, Flood Prone River Programme, IntegratedWasteland Development Programme, Grants underTFC, Hariyali, and the States’ own schemes. Convergenceof these programmes should help to augmentfunds and bring institutions together for sustainablewater supply.URBAN WATER SUPPLYPAST PROGRAMMES AND OUTLAYS5.32 The coverage of urban population with watersupply facilities in the past had not been very impressive,due to various reasons, including the fact thatthe investment made in the urban water supply sectorhad been inadequate. The Tenth Plan projected arequirement of Rs 28240 crore for achieving populationcoverage of 100% with drinking water supplyfacilities in the 300 Class I cities by 31.3.2007. Theestimated outlay for the Tenth Plan period, however,was only Rs 18749 crore in the State sector, andRs 900 crore in Central sector making a total outlay ofRs 19649 crore only.5.33 The Tenth Five Year Plan envisaged augmentationof water supply in urban areas to reach the prescribednorms, higher degree of reliability, assuranceof water quality, a high standard of operation andmanagement, accountability to customers, and, in particular,special arrangements to meet the needs of theurban poor, and levy and recovery of user charges tofinance the maintenance functions as well as facilitatefurther investment in the sector. The achievement ofthese tasks depends to a large extent on the willingnessof the State Governments and urban local bodiesto restructure water supply organizations, levy reasonablewater rates, take up reforms in billing, accounting,and collection, and become creditworthy in orderto have access to market funding. Measures weresuggested for water conservation, reuse, and recyclingof waste water.5.34 While there were progress in some of the suggestionsof Tenth Five Year Plan like adoption of the rainwaterharvesting, tariff revision for sustaining O&M,augmenting the water supply, reducing the leakages,etc. This progress is, however, confined to some pocketsof the country. Thus, for example, the southernmetropolitan water supply and sanitation service