The Water Quality Management

in Rural West Bengal:

Challenges, Initiatives taken and

Way Forward

Dr. Debasri Mukherjee

Water and sanitation support organization (wsso),

Public health engineering departmentGovt. of west bengal

WORLD WATER DISTRIBUTION

Earth – The Blue Planet -- 1386 Million KM3

Water in Rivers/Lakes(0.26% of 2.5% = 0.007%) = 0.097 Million KM3

Oceans: 96.5%

Fresh Water: 2.5%

GLOBAL WATER SCARCITY

Year 2010 2025 2050

Irrigation 557 611 807

Drinking Water 43 62 111

Industry 37 67 81

Energy 19 33 70

Others 54 70 111

Total 710 843 1180

Water Demand ( in km3 )

19511971

19912050(Projected)

1640(Projected)

1027

846

683

548

439361

60-61 70-71 80-81 90-91 99-2000 2050(Projected)

500(Projected)

209.8

176.4

129.6108.4

82

Water Availability constraints due to :

Population GrowthFood Requirement

WATER DEMAND IN INDIA

Source: Govt. of India, 1999

Main source of water in West Bengal is rain fall, the annual average receipt of which is around 1762mm.The net annual water resource generated from rainfall in West Bengal amounts to 51.02 bcm (WBPCB, 2009).West Bengal is endowed with 7.5 per cent of the water resource of the country.

WATER PROFILE- WEST BENGAL

State Profile Numbers

No. of Districts 19

No. of Blocks 341

No. of Gram Panchayats

3362

No. of Habitation 79036

Total Population: 91347736 ( 2011)

Darjeeling Hill Region-North

Terai & Alluvial Region-North & East Bengal

Lateric & Red Region-West

Coastal Region-South

Gangetic Alluvial Region-East & parts of Central

Vindhyan Alluvial Region-Central

DivisionWEST BENGAL STATE PROFILE

•Rural population coverage through PWSS is 35.88%. •Govt. of India Strategic Plan 2022-90% PWSS with House connections and 10% Spot Sources.•This has been achieved by implementing 1068 Piped water supply schemes and 498443 spot sources.

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

1951 1991 2001 2025 2050

Wat

er A

vaili

bilty

(C

ubic

met

re p

er c

apita

per

yea

r)

Water Stress Line (1700) Water Scarcity Line

(1000)

WATER PROFILE- WEST BENGAL

Over Exploitation of Groundwater.Water Quality Problem:

Arsenic- 8 districts, 79 blocksFluoride- 7 districts, 43 blocksHigh salinity- 5 districtsPathogenic contamination.

(Quality affected Habitation – 18424)

Water quality monitored on regular basis by CWC, CGWB, CPCB at National Level and by PHED,

SPCB,WRD at State LevelDeterioration of Surface Water Quality due to River PollutionDeterioration of Ground water Quality due to:

WATER CHALLENGES-WEST BENGAL

More than 0.05 mg/l of arsenic in the body for a long period gives Arsenicosis (pigmentation, hyperpigmentation, melanosis, keratosis, hyper-keratosis etc) More than 1.5 mg/l of Fluoride in the body for a long period gives Fluorosis (dental and skelatal fluorosis)

Problem Severity

Severe Arsenicosis Problems

Dental Fluorosis at childhood

HEALTH IMPACT

“To provide every rural person with adequate safe water for drinking, cooking and other domestic basic needs on a sustainable basis’ is the latest NRDWP goal “

WATER VISION: where we are standing today……

National Water Policy accords highest priority to drinking water ahead of other uses.

Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance (WQM&S) has been given top most priority in NRDWP.

The NRDWP policy recommends management of supply of drinking water at the lowest level of Governance ( Bottom Up Approach).

Paradigm shift in managing drinking water sources through adoption of demand side management and emphasis on augmentation of water resources through water harvesting and finding alternative source of water supply particularly in water quality affected areas.

INITIATIVES TAKEN

120 labs in West Bengal is fully involved for testing the water quality parameters at the districts and sub-divisional levels. At least two to three (2 to 3) blocks goes under one water quality testing labs. out of 120 labs 81 labs goes under the NGO labs and rest 39 labs goes under PHE labs.Importantly out of 120 labs 116 labs follow the NRDWP guidelines till date.

STRENGTHENING OF LABS-WEST BENGAL

In Each Labs:Chemist One (1)Bacteriologist (1)Lab Assistant (1)

Water Facilitators: One Facilitator in One GP recruited by Gram Panchayat:(i)Minimum qualification of water Facilitator – VIII standard(ii)Facilitator gets training through their concerned lab(iii)Facilitator should collect the samples from the identified sources and deposit to the labs for testing.(iv)Also increase awareness regarding water quality status towards the grass root level.

TYPES OF LAB PERSONALS

Recruit water facilitators.

Identify the water sources and put the numbers.

Submit the water samples through water facilitators.

Collect the test result from the Facilitators.

Discuss the result on the monthly meeting.

The Gram Pradhan should make a group of 2 to 3 Mechanic for Block level training call SAE (RWS) for disinfection and surveillance aspects.

ROLE OF GRAM PANCHAYATS

Field testing Kit is already started at the block and GP level for water quality testing through community participation. Primary Health Centre/School/Anganwadi/Panchayat members or the Key Resource Person/s are using the FTK where laboratory infrastructure is not available for water quality testing in a very simple way.

APPLICATION OF FIELD TEST KIT (FTK)

FIELD TEST KIT (FTK): Training Programme

Name of District No. of labs trained FTK distributed

(1) Hooghly 6 labs distributed

(2) Howrah 4 labs distributed

(3) North 24 Parganas 10 labs distributed

(4)Nadia 6 labs Distributed

(5) Murshidabad 11 labs Distributed

(6) South 24 Parganas 10 labs Distributed

STATUS OF FIELD TESTING KIT (FTK)

TRAINING ON FIELD TESTING KIT (FTK)

The State Govt. has provided arsenic free potable drinking water supply to population of 103.94 lakh (census 2001) which constitute 62.5% of the total risk population.Covered 6623 nos. of Habitations.Covered 3229 villages.338 mitigation schemes based on Ground Water.10 based on Surface Water.

Master Plan for coverage of all the fluoride affected habitations is under preparation.

MITIGATION

Spring water, Sub-surface water of the river, Impounded water in Dams and Barrage, Abandoned coal mines, storage Pond water, Roof top rain water etc. Tried and successfully implemented at different parts of the State. Continuous efforts are being made to cover more and areas with such measures wherever possible.

The Public Health Engineering Department has taken up a number of water supply schemes based on the impoundment of

Water in bandhs and dams in the district of Bankura, Purulia, Barddhaman and Paschim Midnapore

INITIATIVE TAKEN FOR ALTERNATIVE SOURCES: CONJUNCTIVE USE OF WATER

•Rural areas of West Bengal have large number of ponds ranging from smaller capacity to moderate capacity. •Rain water accumulated in a pond situated nearby any habitation, may be utilized by providing pond water based water supply scheme to supply drinking water to consumers living in the habitation. •In this case, water from the pond is drawn with the help of double stroke hand pump and is treated in a Horizontal Roughing Filter having number of compartments followed by a Slow Sand Filter unit. •The filtered water is supplied to the consumers after proper disinfection by pot chlorination method.•Number of people to be benefited depends on the size and volume of the pond. •Generally, a moderate pond is capable of supplying drinking water to about 1000 people @ 10 ltr per capita per day.

POND BASED SCHEMES

PHE Department implemented some pilot schemes based on Roof TopRain Water in Darjeeling hill area with a view to replicate the same in other districts Based on successful implementation of such pilot projects

11 Structures have already been constructed

ROOF TOP RAIN WATER HARVESTING SCHEMES

A model drinking water supply scheme based on desalination plant has been commissioned to provide safe drinking water,

In the Brackish Zone of the State, comprised of 59 Blocks of Howrah, Purba Medinipur, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas Districts, similar effort have been made to provide piped water supply,

Some of the rivers carry sub surface flow and those are being exploited for abstraction of water for drinking water supply.

DESALINATION PLANT

Conservation of water in abandoned open cast Coal mine has also been considered a suitable option for alternative source of drinking water supply.

Asansol Coalfield Area Gopalpur Alkusha

COAL MINE AREA

Drinking water from Sinchal lake

Twin lake South lake having capacity 13 MG and North lake having capacity 20 MG

Having its source from 26 nos. perennial springs (Jhora) in Sinchal catchment area.

SPRING BASED WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

Neorakhola Water Supply Scheme in the hilly areas of Darjeeling district to supplement the additional requirement of drinking water.

The source of Neorakhola water supply scheme are two perennial water sources at Neorakhola and Dhaulakhola.

Balason Scheme' in the hilly district of Darjeeling to supply potable drinking water to the people of Darjeeling.

OTHER SOURCES

Establishment of a full scale training institute (KRC-PHED) for induction of new entrants. 100 Mini labs are going to established at the block level by this financial years (2013-2014).International Water Testing Labs for South East Asia is going to be established soonin Slatk Lake area.Revamping of DWSM, VWSC & BRC with total involvement of Zilla Parishad through Panchayat Department.Establishment of protocol for community based Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance Programme.Establishment of a reliable database on water supply issues including procurement and up-gradation of hardware, development of customized software as per demand of the situation.Dissemination of information by way of online sharing (IMIS) the information among the stakeholders (Target-RFD Ranking).

WAY FORWARD

Do we want this future???

or

This???

They are our future

Thank you