From Sujoy Majumdar, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, New Delhi
Posted 21 January 2011
The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Rural Development, had initiated the process of preparing a new Strategic Plan for Rural Drinking Water early last year. The plan is to guide DDWS’s work on rural drinking water up to the year 2022. Drinking water has formed part of India’s development agenda since the First Five Year Plan. The government prioritized it by launching the National Drinking Water Mission to improve access in rural areas in the early 1980s. However, this centralized, demand-driven approach took a uniform approach for the entire country.
We have compiled the draft Strategic Plan and are circulating it to the Water Community for comments before finalizing it. You can read the document at ftp://ftp.solutionexchange.net.in/public/wes/cr/res-20011101.doc (Word, 1.3 MB). We would like members to read the draft and consider the following points while responding:
- Current situation and challenges
- Source sustainability
- Water quality
- O&M
- Inter-sector coordination
- Continuous professional support
- Impact of climate change
- Strategy and implementation
- Enable drinking water security planning and implementation
- Water quality management
- Strengthen decentralized governance
- Build professional capacity
- Regulation
- Institutional structure
- Learning agenda, resources required and key performance indicators as mentioned in the document.
We request members to provide inputs on:
- What are the current challenges from the point of view of Source sustainability, quality, operation and maintenance, inter-sector coordination, professional support and climate change?
- How can DDWS strategise and implement solutions for drinking water security planning and implementation, improve water quality, build professional capacity and strengthen decentralization?
- How can DDWS strengthen regulation and institutional structures ?
- What is the learning agenda, the resources required and key performance indicators?
- How can the goals and aspirations be achieved especially in the States with very low coverage of piped water supply schemes like UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, MP, Rajasthan, Orissa, Assam and Chhattisgarh?
Your inputs will help to inform the finalization of the Strategic Plan.
See the below attachment for response