Drinking and other Domestic Uses

The two documents describe five case studies that highlight some successes and best practices from the Water Supply and Sanitation Department, Government of Maharashtra.

Some new technologies and approaches for improving health through clean water - the work of the Aquaya Institute.
View Slideshow (0.8MB) Part 1 | Part 2

The film highlights the problems and solutions for drinking water in drought prone districts of Tamil Nadu. Ooranis are village ponds that were engineered several centuries ago to harvest rainwater. 

Time: 14mins

Water quality standard sectiion

The water quality standards section on the site of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), contains data on limits/standards of various indicative water quality parameters, such as coliform, pH, dissolved solids, bod etc, for each designated water use (drinking, bathing etc).

Read the standards and also view this file for water quality and drinking water quality standards from www.groundwatertnpwd.org.in

Monitoring of Indian National Aquatic Resource: This article on the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) website, contains graphs indicating the water-source wise national water quality monitoring network data, water quality trend across different parameters (bod, coliform etc), and water quality trend (measured in terms of bod) in various rivers of India.

View the graphs

Environmental standards section

The environmental standards section of the Central Pollution Control Board website, contains more than 40 industry–specific effluent standards, ranging from battery manufacturing to thermal power plants.
Read the industry–specific standards
Under the same section, read through some of the more recently–notified industry– specific standards and some proposed industry–specific standards here
The CPCB is a national body formed to promote cleanliness of streams and wells in the country by prevention, control and abatement of water pollution, and to improve the quality of air and to prevent, control or abate air pollution in the country.
For more info, click here

17 most polluting industries in India

This site provides information on the list of 17 most polluting industries, identified by the Central Pollution Control Board (Ministry of Environment and Forests). The site provides information on the following sections:

This case study deals with resolving the conflict over rural groundwater use between drinking water and irrigation supply in Tamil Nadu. In rural water-supply provision, resource availability has not received the attention it deserves.

This document presents the draft Delhi Water and Wastewater Reforms Bill (2003) prepared by J Sagar Associates (JSA). The bill provides for constitution of a Regulatory  Commission for the water and wastewater sector, reorganization of the water and wastewater sector, rationalization  of water and wastewater tariff, increase avenues for participation of the private sector in the water and wastewater sector and taking measures conducive to the development and management of the water and wastewater sector in an efficient, commercial, economic and competitive manner in the National Capital Territory of Delhi and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

This working paper by the Stanford Centre for International Development deals with household water delivery options in urban and rural India. The recent potentially far-reaching policy changes frame the paper on drinking water options for urban and rural India.  Given the primacy of drinking water as a national objective, and the policy of decentralization through community ownership, private sector participation and devolution to local governments, it asks: How can India alleviate its household level drinking water deprivation, in the near-to-medium term, and in cost-effective ways?

This PhD dissertation by Jenny T Gronwall for Linkoping University's Tema Institute looks at issues of drinking water access in Bangalore through the framework of human rights, analyzing three interlinked dimensions: the right to water as a human right; water in terms of property rights; and water rights. 

Best practices on urban water management from across the world

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Forwarded to the Portal by: Madhavi Purohit, WASMO

Image and Content Courtesy: WASMO, UNPAN

Water and Sanitation Management Organisation (WASMO), Gujarat wins the United Nations Public Service Award. Water and Sanitation Management Organization (WASMO) of Government of Gujarat has been declared winner for 'United Nations Public Service Award - 2009' under the category of "Fostering participation in policy-making decisions through innovative mechanisms"for "Institutionalization of Community Managed Drinking Water Supply Programme and User Level Water Quality". This award will be received at a ceremony to be held on 23rd and 24th June 2009 at United Nations Head Quarters in New York. It is an internationally acclaimed Award being conferred by the United Nations, Division for Public Economic and Public Administration, New York, for recognizing the significant contribution made by the organization to improve the public administration. The UNPSA Programme recognises institutional efforts to design, provide and expend services to citizens in a cost effective manner while promoting people's participation in the design of services and the definition of their needs for poverty alleviation and as a step forward to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.