Sanitation and Safe Drinking Water

Since the announcement of Jal Jeevan Mission in August 2019, envisioned to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024, a number of rural households in the country have water supply connection in their homes.

The focus now needs to be on ensuring community-led operation and maintenance (O&M) so that the water supply systems last their full design period of the next 30 to 50 years for regular water supply. O&M is important for ensuring the functionality of household tap connections. It involves recurring costs like electricity charges, chemical costs, expenditure on preventative and breakdown maintenance, remuneration of pump operator, etc.

In fact, management and O&M of the water supply scheme by the Gram Panchayat/Village Water and Sanitation Committee, recovery of user charges, and full O&M recovery form the cornerstone of the long-term sustainability of the scheme. Sector partners, implementation support agencies, and key resource centres play a huge role towards building leadership and technical capacities of the community members, providing scalable solutions, skilling members, etc.

An estimated 65% to 70% of the total water supply in rural areas is greywater from households, when harnessed with the right treatment techniques, greywater becomes a useful resource for agriculture and other non-potable uses, thereby reducing the freshwater demand.

To address all those issues, NSE Foundation has taken a holistic approach with the objective of raising awareness in the community and increasing the adoption of hygiene practices. NSE Foundation focused on construction, repair and retrofitting of sanitation structures, behaviour change, community ownership and maintenance. Over 1000 schools and 10,000 habitations were reached through more than 291 field workers.

The WASH programmes in 2021-22 had 2.4 lakh beneficiaries, including almost 4,165 ODF project habitations and 29,063 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV), Zilla Parishad (ZP) schools and Ashram schools. In addition, almost 5.9 lakh stakeholders, such as community resource persons, teachers, wardens, sanitation staff, family members, Gram Panchayat members and Government officials were trained and involved in the programmes. More than 706 structures were built.