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 department
Govt. of west bengal
 WORLD WATER
DISTRIBUTION
Earth The Blue Planet Water in Rivers/Lakes
-- 1386 Million KM3 (0.26% of 2.5% = 0.007%) =
0.097 Million KM3

Oceans: 96.5%

Fresh Water: 2.5%

GLOBAL WATER SCARCITY
WATER DEMAND IN INDIA
Water Demand ( in km3 )
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
Source: Govt. of India, 1999

Water Availability constraints due to :

Food Requirement Population Growth

 WATER PROFILE- WEST
BENGAL
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.
 WEST BENGAL STATE PROFILE Division
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

State Profile Numbers

No. of Districts 19
No. of Blocks 341
Total Population: 91347736
No. of Gram 3362 ( 2011)
Panchayats
No. of Habitation 79036
 WATER PROFILE- WEST
BENGAL
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.
 WATER CHALLENGES-WEST BENGAL

Water quality monitored on regular basis by CWC, CGWB, CPCB

at National Level and by PHED, SPCB,WRD at State Level
Deterioration of Surface Water Quality due to River
Pollution
Deterioration of Ground water Quality due to:

Over Exploitation of Groundwater.

Water Quality Problem:

Arsenic- 8 districts, 79 blocks

Fluoride- 7 districts, 43 blocks
High salinity- 5 districts
Pathogenic contamination.

(Quality affected Habitation 18424)

 HEALTH IMPACT
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

 WATER VISION: where we are standing
today

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
 INITIATIVES TAKEN

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.
 STRENGTHENING OF LABS-WEST BENGAL
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.
 TYPES OF LAB PERSONALS
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.
 ROLE OF GRAM
PANCHAYATS
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.
 APPLICATION OF FIELD TEST KIT (FTK)

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.
FIELD TEST KIT (FTK): Training
Programme
 STATUS OF FIELD TESTING KIT (FTK)

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

TRAINING ON FIELD TESTING KIT (FTK)
 MITIGATION
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.
 INITIATIVE TAKEN FOR ALTERNATIVE SOURCES:
CONJUNCTIVE USE OF WATER

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
 POND BASED SCHEMES
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.
 ROOF TOP RAIN WATER HARVESTING
SCHEMES

PHE Department implemented some pilot schemes based on Roof Top

Rain 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

 DESALINATION PLANT
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.
 COAL MINE AREA

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

 SPRING BASED WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

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.
 OTHER SOURCES

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.
 WAY FORWARD
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).
 This???
Do we want this future???

or
They are our future
Thank you