The drinking water supply and sanitation sector is seeing the emergence of new challenges and complex problems having profound impact on health, livelihood and well being of rural communities. To look into these issues and to suggest measures to tackle these new challenges in an integrated manner, the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission, under the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India has set up a High Powered Technical Expert Group (TEG) under the Chairmanship of Shri Gourishankar Ghosh, IAS (Retd.). TEG will look into various aspects of the drinking water and sanitation sector and will have consultation with Department of Drinking Water Supply as well as with various Ministries and departments having inter-linkages with drinking water and sanitation.

Among the major issues identified by the Mission are the following:

• Indiscriminate use of water by other sectors and uncontrolled discharge of waste water and effluents has both increased the cost of safe drinking water supply and made a number of water sources defunct due to drop in groundwater level and quality issues.
• There is an absence of integration of rural sanitation, hygiene, water supply and health resulting in increased disease and malnutrition, increasing pollution and exploitation of groundwater and water quality problems, resulting in setbacks on the health front.
• Lack of reforms in the capacity and institutional structures of the State PHEDs and non-involvement of communities and PRIs make several current efforts unsustainable.

The details and Terms of Reference of the TEG are given in the following document: Click here

The TEG invites organisations and individuals to provide inputs on the above document, specifically on the following issues:

• A listing and prioritization of various issues in the water and sanitation sector and their critical linkages with other sectors such as health, livelihood and well being for optimal impact on poverty reduction and better health for the poor.
• Examples and experiences illustrating members' analyses of the above linkages.
• Documents and references that have analysed the water and sanitation situation in the above context.

Peoples' inputs will play a key role in the consultation process leading to more informed policy and programmes on water and sanitation and will be greatly appreciated by the TEG.

Looking forward to incisive and cogent inputs on the issue.

Ravi Narayanan
Technical Expert Group, Government of India
and Arghyam Trust, Bangalore

The Water Portal is collecting and collating input for forwarding to the TEG in this regard. The input from members will be passed on to the TEG with attribution and contact information. Kindly provide your input in this regard by sending an email to portal@arghyam.org with title "Input for Expert Group".

The TEG has been asked to submit an interim report in 60 days and a final report within 120 days. TEG has requested that inputs be provided by September 30th, given the short duration available for its working, for maximal effectiveness.