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Survey to assess drinking water in cities to begin in October
As many as 485 cities covered under AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) will be assessed in the survey, a ministry official said, requesting anonymity.
The central government is set to assess and rank cities on the quality of drinking water through a survey named Pey Jal Survekshan (PJS) to be conducted in October, according to officials of the housing and urban affairs ministry.
As many as 485 cities covered under AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) will be assessed in the survey, a ministry official said, requesting anonymity. The cities will be assessed on five key areas: water utility services, sewer connections and used water utility services, health of water bodies, non-revenue water and best practices and innovation.
“We will start collecting the data in October,” the official said.
The ministry has released a toolkit for the assessment and is developing a web portal where cities will have to upload data related to various parameters based on which assessment will be done along with related documents, the official added.
“The assessors will then go on the ground and verify the details provided by each city. The scores will be calculated based on the evidence and field observations. The quality of drinking water will be tested independently. Citizens’ feedback will also be an important factor in the assessment of cities,” the ministry official said.
The assessment parameters, another ministry official said, was finalised based on the outcome of the pilot PJS under Jal Jeevan Mission Urban that was carried out in Agra, Badlapur, Bhubaneswar, Churu, Patiala, Rohtak, Surat and Tumkur last year.
In the household survey, feedback will be taken on drinking water quality and quality, availability of metres, urban local bodies’ complaint redressal system and awareness about water conservation, among other parameters, ministry officials said.
Under AMRUT 2.0, the central government aims to bridge the gap of 26.8 million household tap connections in all statutory towns and 26.4 million in sewer connections in 485 AMRUT cities.
The assessment of water utility and used water utility are two main components of assessment.
Besides quality and quantity of water supplied, cities will be assessed on 12 parameters such as coverage of water supply, water treatment capacity, extent of metering, rainwater harvesting efficiency, complaint redressal mechanism, and so on, officials said.
“Water samples will be tested from households as well as from the treatment plant,” said the first official cited earlier.
Under the used water category, officials said, cities will be assessed on four key parameters: percentage of household with sewer connection or septic tank or twin pit, percentage of used water generated and treated at the plants, reuse of treated water and availability of dedicated water testing facility at the treatment plant and frequency at which tests are done.
The Centre has been focusing on rejuvenation of water bodies and developing green spaces around it in cities. Under the survey, each urban local body has been asked to list three water bodies under their jurisdiction for assessment.
Data collection and field surveys are likely to be completed in two months from the date of launch of the survey. The results will be announced next year.
