Water management at village level will be critical after all households are connected with taps, says top official

New Delhi, Nov 13 (PTI) Drinking Water and Sanitation Department Secretary A K K Meena has said 79 per cent of households have been given water connections so far under the Jal Jeevan Mission and water management will be required at the ground level as all households get connected.

Speaking at the concluding session of the 10th CII Water Innovation Summit, where CII National Awards for Excellence in Water Management were given, Meena on Tuesday said the first and the preliminary step under the Jal Jeevan Mission was to ensure that access of water through taps is made available to the entire country.

"Today, about 79 per cent of the houses have a functional tap connection. Now, what would happen once water is available in each and every household? The water management at the household level and the village level will become critical," Meena said.

"So, when you have 100 per cent of the households which are covered with water connections, these micro utilities will particularly look at how water has to remain sustainable, how the quality has to be maintained, how do we actually conserve the water at the household level and the grey water which will emanate from each household, how do we actually take care of the grey water," he added.

"So here we are talking about almost more than 5.5 lakhs of micro water utilities operating in the entire country maintaining a service level of delivery of water, adhering to BIS 6500 quality standards and quantities also defined," Meena said.

The official said the best practices from the private sector will play a role-model in this.

"How would these utilities perform their job? Do they have any precedence of doing or handling or managing the water appropriately in the country? And who would be the role models?" Meena said.

"Role models would be the enterprises which are operating in the private sector, the industry. How they have been handling their water," he added.

The Jal Jeevan Mission is envisioned to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections to all households in rural India. PTI AO AS AS