Chapter: Gist of Press Information Bureau Articles

Topic: Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission - A Success Story

Q.  Give timeline of drinking water programme of India?

• A national water supply and sanitation programme was introduced in the social welfare sector way back in 1954.

• Essentially, provision of safe drinking water in the rural areas has been the responsibility of the states.

• The Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme was introduced in 1972-73 by the Government to assist the states and Union Territories to accelerate the pace of coverage of drinking water supply.

• The entire programme was given a mission approach and the ambitious project was named the National Drinking Water Mission (NDWM) in 1986.

• This National Drinking Water Mission was renamed as Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission which principally works on the premise of community based demand driven approach instead of the traditional forced supply driven approach.

• Actually, a paradigm shift in the scheme was brought after a nationwide survey conducted in 1996-97 which revealed that even poorest of the poor were” willing to participate” in the implementation of the programmes, and also contribute towards operation and maintenance of the scheme for drinking water.

Q. Why sanitation programmes associated with drinking water programme?

• It was realised that the objective of supplying safe drinking water would not be achieved unless the sanitary aspects of water and the issue of sanitation are addressed together.

• Thus, the Centrally Sponsored Rural Sanitation Programme was christened with the overall objective of improving the quality of life of the rural people. It was envisaged that the two programmes, the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme or the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission and the Rural Sanitation Programme implemented simultaneously would help break the circle of disease, morbidity and poor health, resulting from water borne diseases.

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