Department of Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry & National Jal Jeevan Mission (NJJM), Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation (Ministry of Jal Shakti) have launched a “Water Quality Testing Innovation Challenge” for developing ‘Portable devices for testing drinking water quality’.
i.The Challenge is open to Startups, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), Innovators & Corporate Entities.
ii.Objective – To develop a portable device which would be used in every household for checking the quality of drinking water.
Key Points:
i.People who receive piped water supply in their homes do not have any means to test the potability of water, the challenge aims to address this situation by providing an innovative, cost-effective device.
ii.A portable device will help officials to test the water sources at various locations and design programs to address water contamination issues.
iii.The source of water supply in rural areas is from both groundwater (80%) & surface water (20%), however due to depleting groundwater level use of surface water is on the rise in India.
iv.To ensure access to potable water for citizens, measuring area-specific contaminations is necessary.
Quality Standards for potable water:
i.Uniform Drinking Water Quality Protocol, 2019 enacted by the Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation has set parameters for assuring portability of drinking water as per Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) 10500:2012.
ii.Jal Jeevan Mission has set some parameters for Drinking water they are,
- pH value – 6.5-8.5, Total dissolved solids – 500 mg/litre, Turbidity – 1 NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Units), Chloride – 250 Mg/litre, Total Alkalinity – 200mg/ltr, Total Hardness – 200mg/ltr, Sulphate – 200mg/ltr,Iron – 1.0 mg/ltr, Total arsenic – 0.01 mg/ltr,Flouride – 1.0 mg/ltr,Nitrate – 45 mg/ltr, Total Coliform Bacteria & E-Coli or thermotolerant coliform bacteria – Not detectable in any 100 ml Sample.
Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM):
i.JJM launched in 2019 (implemented by the Ministry of Jal Shakti) aims to enable tap water connection to every rural household in India by 2024.
ii.Around 2.90 Crore households have been provided tap water connection under the Jal Jeevan Mission till December 23, 2020, it has increased tap water supply from 2.32 Crore (17%) in August, 2019 to 6.13 Crore (32%) rural households in India.
iii.Every household in 20 districts, 425 blocks, 34 thousand Gram Panchayats and 64 thousand villages of India now have access to tap water connection.
Recent Related News:
i.On May 29,2020, Ministry of Jal Shakti, a ministry under Government of India (GoI) has approved an amount of INR 445 crore for the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in Chhattisgarh during 2020-21.
About Ministry of Commerce & Industry:
Union Minister – Piyush Goyal
Minister of State – Hardeep Singh Puri, Som Parkash
About Ministry of Jal Shakti:
Union Minister – Gajendra Singh Shekhawat
Minister of State – Rattan Lal Kataria
