Chhattisgarh
state has achieved unprecedented success in drinking water quality testing work
under the Jal Jeevan Mission with as many as 16 district level water
laboratories now been accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing
and Calibration Laboratories (NABL).
This
includes water testing laboratories in Durg, Balod, Rajnandgaon, Kabirdham,
Bemetara, Raipur, Mahasamund, Gariaband, Dhamtari, Balodabazar, Bilaspur,
Raigarh, Korba, Mungeli, Kanker and Jagdalpur districts. The remaining eight
districts have also applied for NABL accreditation.
Efforts
are also being made by Jal Jeevan Mission for NABL accreditation of
sub-division level laboratories by March 2022. Through the Jal Jeevan Mission,
the general public of the state has got the facility of getting their private
source water tested from the NABL accredited laboratories of their respective
district headquarters.
Besides,
the state has also set new records in the field of testing drinking water
sources in rural areas through FTK with training programmes being completed in
11,642 (99.8 per cent) of Gram Panchayats. So far, 79,689 women have been
trained in water testing as ‘Jal Bahini’ in 11,642 Gram Panchayats. The
chemical water testing of 3, 13,501 i.e. 65 per cent drinking water sources has
been done so far this year.
Meanwhile,
domestic tap connections have been provided to 7, 66, 733 families (15.78 per
cent) in the state so far and as per the instructions of Chief Minister Bhupesh
Baghel, about two lakh households have been provided domestic connections
through Jal Jeevan after April 1, 2021. Pure drinking water has been provided
to 100 per cent families of total 132 villages of the state through functional
domestic tap connections. Over 1471 youth of 19 districts have been trained as
“Jal Mitan” under skill development training for the smooth operation
and maintenance work of the tap water schemes to be operated under Jal Jeevan
Mission. Such training programmes are still going on.
Efforts
are being made to turn this into a mass movement by running a social media
campaign in the state under the Jal Jeevan Mission from December 23 to January
26. As a part of this campaign, wide publicity is being done of best practices
being adopted by different districts under the banner of “Aaj Pani Ki Kya
Kahani Hai”. Besides, public awareness about drinking water safety is also
being spread under this campaign.
