Acknowledging a drinking water crisis in rural India, the Union Rural Development Minister, Mr Jairam Ramesh, on Friday said the Government intended to provide potable water to 90 per cent of villages by 2022, and suggested that States could impose user charges on households in this direction.
Mr Ramesh, however, said the revenue generated from user charges on potable water should go to village panchayats.
“Many States have agreed to impose water charges on household in villages for ensuring safe drinking water. But our stand is that the revenue generated from water charges should go to gram panchayats,” Mr Ramesh said after the meeting of the States on drinking water and sanitation here.
He said “many gram panchayats are eager to impose user charges on drinking water. It is already being done in some villages in Gadchiroli district, a Naxalite-affected area in Maharashtra.”
At present, tap water is available to only 35 per cent of total villages in the country. The Government has earmarked Rs 10,500 crore for providing drinking water in the current fiscal and, out of which, Rs 525 crore will be released to the States by June 5.
He said there are many States where the quality of water is deteriorating. “For example, arsenic and flouride have been found in water in some parts of West Bengal, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, among other States.
“There are 20 districts in UP which are suffering from Japanese encephalitis. Thousands of children are dying due to the contamination in drinking water,” Mr Ramesh said.
The Government has earmarked 60 districts in water quality-stressed States like Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and UP to launch a special scheme for providing drinking water as pilot project.
The Drinking Water Ministry has changed the norms of the per day consumption of water per person under rural water drinking scheme. “Since the last 50 years, the norm was 40 litre/day per person in rural areas whereas in the urban areas it is 135 litre/day per person which I find is injustice,” Mr Ramesh said.