Why in news?
- The Centre has released the Water Quality Report, 2019.
About the report:
- The report is in line with the Jal Jeevan Mission, launched to provide clean and safe drinking water to all by 2024.
- It is based on a study undertaken by the Department of Consumer Affairs through the Bureau of India Standards (BIS) on the quality of piped drinking water being supplied in the country.
- It has ranked the States, Smart Cities and even Districts based on the quality of tap water.
- In the first phase, the samples of drinking water were drawn from various locations across Delhi.
- In the second phase, samples were drawn from 20 State capitals and sent for testing as per Indian Standard 10500:2012 (Specification for Drinking Water) as set by the BIS.
- Result:
- A vast majority of the samples have failed to comply with the requirements of IS 10500:2012 in one or more parameters.
- In Delhi, all the 11 samples drawn did not comply with the requirements of the Indian Standard & failed on several parameters.
- All the 10 samples drawn from Mumbai were found to comply with the requirements.
- In the cities of Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi, Raipur, Amravati and Shimla, one or more samples did not comply with the requirements of the Standard.
- None of the samples drawn from 13 of the State Capitals i.e. Chandigarh, Thiruvananthapuram, Patna, Bhopal, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Gandhi agar, Luck now, Jammu, Jaipur, Dehradun, Chennai, Kolkata complied with the requirements of the Indian Standard.
What next?
- In the third phase, samples from Capital cities of North Eastern States and Smart Cities identified by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs have been drawn and are being tested.
- The result of these is expected soon.
- In the fourth phase, it is proposed to test samples drawn from all the district headquarters of the country and their testing is planned to be completed by 15th August 2020.
- The Union Government wants to make BIS Standards mandatory for Tap Water so as to ensure quality drinking water for all households.
