National Rural Drinking Water Programme

This Indian Standard (Second Revision) was adopted by the Bureau of Indian Standards, after the draft finalized by the Drinking Water Sectional Committee had been approved by the Food and Agriculture Division Council. This standard was originally published in 1983. A report prepared by the World Health Organization in cooperation with the World Bank showed that in 1975, some 1 230 million people were without safe water supplies. These appalling facts were central to the United Nations decision to declare an International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation decade, beginning in 1981. Further, the VI Five-Year Plan of India had made a special provision for availability of safe drinking water for the masses. Therefore, the standard was formulated with the objective of assessing the quality of water resources, and to check the effectiveness of water treatment and supply by the concerned authorities.

As per the eleventh five year plan document of India (2007-12), there are about 2.17 lakh quality-affected habitations in the country with more than half affected with excess iron, followed by fluoride, salinity, nitrate and arsenic in
that order. Further, approximately, 10 million cases of diarrhoea, more than 7.2 lakh typhoid cases and 1.5 lakh viral hepatitis cases occur every year a majority of which are contributed by unclean water supply and poor sanitation. The eleventh five year plan document of India (2007-2012) recognizes dealing with the issue of water quality as a major challenge and aims at addressing water quality problems in all quality affected habitations with emphasis on community participation and awareness campaigns as well as on top most priority to water quality surveillance and monitoring by setting up of water quality testing laboratories strengthened with qualified manpower, equipment and chemicals.

Coming Soon!