Forwarded to the portal by: Sujoy Majumdar, DDWS through the Solution Exchange Water Community

The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Rural Development, has finalized a draft of its Strategic Plan (2010-22) and is inviting comments from the public, to finalise the draft. 

DDWS had initiated the process of preparing a new Strategic Plan for Rural Drinking Water early last year. The purpose of the plan is to guide DDWS’ work on rural drinking water up to the year 2022.

Drinking water has formed part of India’s development agenda since the First Five Year Plan. The government prioritized it by launching the National Drinking Water Mission to improve access in rural areas in the early 1980s. However, this centralized, demand-driven approach took a uniform approach for the entire country.

The draft document has the following main sections:

• Part One sets out the Aspirations and Goals for the Strategic Plan of the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation and the rural drinking water sector as a whole.
• Part Two outlines the rising aspirations, current situation, and challenges concerning the rural drinking water sector.
• Part Three sets out the Strategy. The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation has identified four Strategic Objectives (Enable Drinking Water Security; Water Quality Management; Strengthen Decentralised Governance, and Build Professional Capacity) to achieve its overall objective of providing improved, sustainable water services in rural communities.
• Part Four provides options from which each State can formulate its own Implementation Plan depending on its needs, capacity and resources, and establish a timeframe for achieving transformation.
• Part Five outlines the necessary Learning Agenda, Resources Required and Key Performance Indicators to monitor progress against the Strategy and Implementation Plans.

The Government of India, through the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, has already taken significant steps to meet this challenge through the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP). This document has been prepared to help operationalise the NRDWP by setting out a Strategic Plan in terms of aspirations, goals, objectives and strategic initiatives for the sector for the period 2010-2022.

Please consider the following points while responding:

• Current situation and challenges
  
  1. Source sustainability
  2. Water quality
  3. O&M
  4. Inter-sector coordination
  5. Continuous professional support
  6. Impact of climate change

• Strategy and implementation
  
  1. Enable drinking water security planning and implementation
  2. Water quality management
  3. Strengthen decentralized governance
  4. Build professional capacity
  5. Regulation

• Institutional structure

• Learning agenda, resources required and key performance indicators as mentioned in the document.

Inputs requested around the following main questions:

• What are the current challenges from the point of view of Source sustainability, quality, operation and maintenance, inter-sector coordination, professional support and climate change (page 6)?
• How can DDWS strategise (page 9) and implement solutions (page 19) for drinking water security planning and implementation, improve water quality, build professional capacity and strengthen decentralization?
• How can DDWS strengthen regulation (page 28) and institutional structures (page 14)?
• What is the learning agenda (page 32), the resources required and key performance indicators (page 34)
• How can the goals and aspirations be achieved especially in the States with very low coverage of piped water supply schemes like UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, MP, Rajasthan, Orissa, Assam and Chhattisgarh?

The last date for sending in comments to DDWS is 31 January, 2011.

Please send in your comments to:

Sujoy Majumdar
Director (RWS)
Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation,
Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India,
8th Floor, Paryavaran Bhawan, CGO Complex, Lodi Road, New Delhi - 110003.

Ph: +91-11-24360102 
Fax: +91-11-24363253

Email: sujoy.m@nic.in; Please cc portal@arghyam.org.