Rural Water Supply Programme: Public Health Engineering Department

Rural Water Supply Programme

PHED takes up Rural Water Supply Projects for providing drinking water supply facilities in Rural Areas of the state. Providing safe drinking water supply is included under 20 point program & the targets are fixed for coverage of habitations. Projects are taken up for Not covered (NC), Partially Covered (PC) & Iron affected habitations as per 1994 survey as well as for Renovation /Reconstruction of schemes which have been implemented more than 15 years back, for improvement of existing facilities as well as sustainability of drinking water sources.
Rural Water Supply Programme is taken up under two programmes namely:-

Central Sector National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) earlier known as Accelerated Rural Water Supply Program (ARWSP)
State Sector Rural Water Supply Programme. Earlier it was named as Minimum Needs Programme (MNP)
National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) /Accelerated rural water Supply Program (ARWSP)

Programme Details

NRDWP (National Rural Drinking Water Programme) is a centrally sponsored scheme funded on 90:10 basis by Central & State Govt. It has mainly three components

Sl. No.	Component Name	Allocation as % of the Yearly Allocation of NRDWP
1	NRDWP (Programme)	92%
2	NRDWP (Support)	5%
3	NRDWP (Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance)	3%

NRDWP (Programme)

Under this program, Schemes are taken up for coverage of Not Covered (NC), Partially Covered (PC) /Slipped Back habitations and habitations having water quality problem with the yearly release of fund. Water supply to Govt. Rural Schools & ICDS housed in Govt. Buildings can also be taken up under the Program. Maximum 10% of the NRDWP fund can be utilized for source/scheme sustainability & another 15% for O&M of the completed water supply schemes. Thus about 75% of the Allocation is utilised for water supply projects for coverage of habitations/schools/ICDS.

NRDWP (Support)

It consists of Communication & Capacity Development, Management Information System, IEC activities, Research & Development, Programme & Project Monitoring & Evaluation, Matters relating to drilling by Rigs, investigation & monitoring and Establishment charges.

NRDWP (water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance)

It consists of establishment of District & Sub Divisional Laboratories, Procurement & distribution of FTKs (Field Testing Kits) to VWSC (Village Water Supply & Sanitation Committee) and their training including establishment charges.

The yearly allocation under NRDWP for the States is fixed by Govt. Of India as per the criteria outlined in the guidelines like total rural population, area of the State etc.

Power has been delegated to the State for sanctioning schemes under ARWSP. These schemes are sanctioned on clearance by the State Level Scheme Sanctioing Committee(SLSSC) headed by the Principal Secretary, PHE, who is the member Secretary of State Water & Sanitation Mision(SWSM) headed by the Chief Secretary. Earlier schemes were used to be sanctioned by State Level Advisory Board (SLAB) headed by the Chief Secretary, after clearance of the proposals by Scientific Source Finding Committee (SFC) at the State Level headed by Principal Secretary,PHE /Commissioner & Secretary (PHE) with the Officer in charge of Central Ground water Board (CGWB) as Member Secretary.

Reduction in Allocation under NRDWP

Almost all the North Eastern State in general and Meghalaya in particular are dependent on Central Schemes/Programme for coverage of Rural Habitations with Water Supply & Sanitation. The coverage of Rural Habitations with Drinking Water is also being taken up under State Plan. However, during the current year, no fund under State Plan has been received by the Dept. so far.

The State allocation under NRDWP has been reduced drastically for last few years. Understanding the Resource Constraint faced by the North Eastern States in general, Ministry through its communication vide letter no. W-11011/36/2015-Water Dated 04.01.2016 have maintained the Funding Pattern under NRDWP at 90:10.

The State Allocation of Fund for 2016-17 under NRDWP was originally fixed at Rs. 3434.51 Lakhs but enhanced to Rs. 3863.58 Lakhs, as informed in New Delhi on 16.2.2017.

While maintaining the Funding Pattern of 90:10 to the Resource Constraint North Eastern States, Allocation of Fund have been drastically reduced and in respect of Meghalaya, the Fund release under NRDWP during the last five years was as below:-

Year	Release (Rs. In Lakhs)
2012-13	9760.84
2013-14	10340.05
2014-15	6950.49
2015-16	3123.64
2016-17 (up to 24th 2017)	4041.85

The allocation during 2014-15 included onetime release of Rs. 1500.00 Lakhs under Natural Calamities.

This unprecedented reduction in allocation has put tremendous pressure on implementation of the ongoing projects sanctioned under National Rural Drinking Water Programme.

Govt. of India has maintained that in view of the increase in devolution of fund under 14th Finance Commission to the States from 32% to 42% and devolution of funds to Gram Panchayats for basic services which also includes water supply as well, the allocation under NRDWP has got reduced.

During 2016-17, State Level Scheme Sanctioning Committee (SLSSC) for NRDWP Schemes met on 27.09.2016 and accordingly cleared and approved 3 Nos. of Schemes under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) with Funding pattern of 90:10 covering 5 Nos. of Habitations as indicated hereinbelow :

Sl. No.	Name of District	Name of Water Supply Scheme	Name of SAGY Villages	Amount (₹ in Lakhs)
1.	East Garo Hills	Improvement of Chengalma Combined Water Supply Scheme	Chenggalma Songgital
			Chenggalma A	308.67
			Chenggalma B
2.	Ri-Bhoi	i. Augmentation of Lumgiendngan Water Supply Scheme	Myrdon Mawtari	30.28
2.	Ri-Bhoi	ii. Augmentation Umksih Water Supply Scheme	Myrdon Mawtari	97.56
Total				436.51

The work for these schemes would be taken up once Administrative Approval is received.

State Sector Rural Water Supply Programme

The projects for NC, PC, Iron affected habitations are also required to be taken up under State Sector Rural Water Supply Program also, as providing safe drinking water supply is included under 20 point program & the targets are fixed for coverage of habitations. More over, since projects can be taken up under NRDWP only for restricted parameter as above & the availability of fund under NRDWP is also limited, the projects for Renovation/Improvement of existing schemes are required to be taken up under State Sector only. Moreover, to avail the benefit under NRDWP, matching State share of 10% of the Project costs under NRDWP is required to be provided by the State Govt.

During past years, several water supply schemes were required to be taken up in different villages to mitigate the inadequacy of safe drinking water due to disproportionate increase in population .Besides in view of the large scale deforestation all around before the ban imposed by the honourable Supreme Court through landmark judgement, man made damage has been caused to the nature resulting in reduction of discharge of many water sources & even total drying up of some of the water sources. The cascade effect of destruction of forest covering necessitated taking up number of reconstruction/renovation schemes. There are also many water supply schemes implemented earlier, which has become non functional/partially functional due to theft, damage by wild elephants, inter village rivalry. Habitations have turned from Fully Covered (FC) to Partially Covered (PC) or even Not Covered (NC) category. New habitations have also come up. Schemes are required to be taken up for this. The need for taking up projects under Rural Drinking water Supply Program is therefore quite high. The Availability of fund both under under State & Central plan is much less than the requirement.

Strategy adopted under Rural Water Supply Programme

Supplementing with new schemes for the habitations served by outlived schemes.
Rejuvenation of the outlived schemes which are functioning below their rated capacity.
Providing the regional schemes from alternative safe sources by extending new pipelines.
Providing rainwater-harvesting structures.
Reviving the traditional sources.
Utilizing low cost technology for mitigation of quality affected habitations.
Providing water supply from alternate sources for coverage of habitations with no safe source.
Sustainability of Rural Water Supply sources
For Sustainability of Systems, Department has undertaken extensive exercise for institutionalization of community participation in O&M of rural drinking water infrastructure.
Low-cost technologies are being promoted not only for meeting drinking water requirements, but also for re-charging of the water table.
Source strengthening measures proposed to be made an integral part of all Rural Water Supply schemes.
Convergence of efforts of all Departments in watershed development and management would go a long way in meeting the drinking water needs.
Sustainability measures such as involvement of PRIs / VWSCs in Operation and Maintenance of assets created in the past. In addition, some contribution towards capital cost of new assets to be created for generating sense of ownership among local community.
Need for a system of incentives for PRIs / VWSCs for ensuring village level O&M of assets.
Capacity building of PRIs / VWSCs.
Sustainability of sources by creating re-charging structures and regulating over-exploitation of underground water.

Monitoring

Regular monitoring, concurrent evaluation / social audit of Drinking Water Schemes by lead NGOs / academic and research institutions, reputed social workers, professional experts.
Obtaining monthly reports regarding the implementation of the schemes from the District officers.
Taking feedback regarding implementation of the schemes from District Vigilance and Monitoring Committees which include elected representatives.
Involving community and local institutions in water quality monitoring and surveillance.
Monitoring by State/District/Village Water and Sanitation Committees.
Creation of awareness and publicity of the schemes through mass media.
Display of information of details and progress of the project.
[This information has been taken from http://mdws.gov.in website]

Types of Rural Water Supply Schemes

The Types of Water Supply Schemes Implemented by the dept. are:

Ring Well
Spring Tapped Chamber
Deep Tube Well (DTW) with India marked-II Hand Pump
D.T.W. with Power Pump
Gravity Feed Water Supply Scheme
Pumping Schemes with Diesel or Electricity from river or stream source

The schemes are implemented giving preference in the above-mentioned order to make it economically viable.

The sanctioned projects are priority projects and hence executions of all the sanctioned projects were taken up immediately after sanction. However, with the limited Plan Resources, it is not possible to provide sufficient fund for completion of all the schemes.