Towards Blue Bharat: Road ahead for Sustainable Development
NewsBharati 09-Jan-2023 11:15:15 AM
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The first target under Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, Target 6.1, is, “By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all”. The worldwide trend has shown that in the last two decades there has been a considerable increase in access to drinking water services. Two billion people globally gained access to safely managed drinking water services.
In a span of 20 years, 74% of the world’s population (5.8 billion people) used safely managed to drink water in 2020 which was up from 62% (3.8 billion) in 2000. Still, the challenges from Climate Change, changing land use patterns, Urbanisation, Increasing carbon footprint, deforestation impacting biodiversity loss, water competition, population and poverty impacts clubbed with pollution etc. can pose a big challenge to targets set. It is projected that by 2080, an estimated 1 billion additional people are expected to be impacted by high climate variability and climate-related water security threats.
The United Nations, coordinated by UN-Water, has developed the SDG-6 Global Acceleration Framework, which identifies five accelerators to support the achievement of SDG 6. These are
1. Governance
2. Financing
3. Capacity Development
4. Data &
5. Innovation
Using this framework, The United Nations State of the World’s Drinking Water report presents ways to address challenges and identifies emerging best practices and successes worldwide.
Further as per the report, Two monitoring platforms have been mandated to monitor progress towards the achievement of the drinking water target of SDG 6.
The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene. This is responsible for generating internationally comparable estimates of progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, using globally agreed-upon definitions and methods.
The UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking Water (GLAAS) is implemented by the World Health Organization (WHO) on behalf of UN-Water. GLAAS monitors components of WASH systems, including governance, monitoring, finance and human resources necessary to sustain and extend WASH services to all, especially the most vulnerable population groups.
Definitions
1. Drinking Water: The main source used by households for drinking, cooking, personal hygiene and other domestic uses.
2. Climate Change Adaptation: In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected change climate and its effects.
3. Climate Change Resilience: The capacity of social, economic and environmental systems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance, responding or reorganizing in ways that maintain their essential function, identity and structure, while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning and transformation.9
4. Climate Change Mitigation: Achieved by limiting or preventing greenhouse gas emissions and by activities that remove these gases from the atmosphere.
5. Nature-Based Solutions: Approaches that use nature and natural processes to deliver infrastructure, services and integrative solutions to meet the rising challenge of urban resilience. These interventions usually go beyond sectoral boundaries and require cross-sectoral partnerships. Nature-based solutions can provide multiple benefits to cities and address different societal challenges, including reducing disaster risk and building climate resilience, while also contributing to restoring biodiversity, creating opportunities for recreation, improving human health, water and food security, and supporting community well-being and livelihoods. Examples include forests, wetlands, mangroves, terracing, green corridors and bio-retention areas.
Source: WHO, UNICEF, World Bank. State of the world’s drinking water: an urgent call to action to accelerate progress on ensuring safe drinking water for all. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2022.
The Human Development Report 2021/2022 focusing on ‘Uncertain times, unsettled lives’ and approaching to shaping our future in a transforming world state that Climate change is predicted to increase both average temperatures and temperature variability, with temperature fluctuations projected to increase by 100 percent at lower latitudes. Resultantly, more than 40 percent of the world’s population which depend on water sources may get affected by such high climate variability.
Why Safe Drinking Water is Important?
UNICEF estimates that waterborne diseases have an economic burden of approximately USD 600 million a year in India. This is especially true for drought- and flood-prone areas, which affected a third of India’s population in the past couple of years.
Moreover, two-thirds of India’s 718 districts were affected by extreme water depletion as per the 2017 report of WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene. The chances of survival and improved outcomes for every child and in turn families is enhanced with safe and secure drinking water. The challenges for women in rural areas is immense and have been seen in the survey done to assess Water Carriage in India.
Source: WHO, UNICEF, World Bank. State of the world’s drinking water: an urgent call to action to accelerate progress on ensuring safe drinking water for all. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2022.
A step towards Blue Bharat
15th August 2019 was a landmark day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared from the Red Fort to take forward the Jal Jeevan Mission and announced that the Central and the State governments will jointly work on the Jal Jeevan Mission and promised to spend more than Rs. 3.50 Lakh Crores on this mission.
This Mission is being implemented in partnership with States to enable every household in all villages to have Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) by year 2024 wherein every family gets assured quality of safe drinking water of prescribed quality on regular and long term basis.
As of November 2022, about 1.30 Crore rural households have been added to provide the tap water supply in the financial year 2022-23 and as on date, 10.64 Crore (55%) households in rural India are getting tap water supply in their homes.
Status Of Tap Water Supply Coverage In Coverage In Rural Homes India
The Jal Jeevan (Water for Life) Mission was launched with such a mandate and in full alignment with SDG criteria for safely managed water supply to every rural household. This ambitious programme is currently being implemented in partnership with state governments.
It is important to note that public sector funding has been committed towards the JJM programme across all levels of government. Not just this, the Government of India further is driving a paradigm shift away from simply building water supply infrastructure, to concentrating on providing water supply as an ongoing service. The focus on having a decentralized, demand-driven, community-managed water supply systems is likely to ensure the sustainability of the programme.
At the village level, the Gram Panchayats, are empowered to commission construction work, operate and maintain infrastructure, collect community contributions, monitor water quality monitoring, and ensure source sustainability through water resource management. This may well act as a game changer in ensuring long term results.
The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation of the Ministry of Jal Shakti (‘Water Power’) provides technical and financial assistance to the states, supported by development partners. States have been encouraged and supported to develop robust institutions, with a focus on service delivery and financial sustainability. It is informed that approximately 11,000 support agencies, mainly NGOs, are being engaged by states to support implementation up to the level of villages. To provide support, 104 key resource centres have been selected and contracted by the ministry, and personnel within them trained by UNICEF.
Piped water facilities have been provided to more than seven crore households in the country in just three years under the ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’. For the first time, piped water has reached more than 30 lakh rural households in Karnataka till November 2022.
Challenges & Approaches:
One of the challenges is the fast rate of groundwater depletion in India due to the proliferation of drilling over the past few decades. It is estimated that groundwater from over 30 million access points supplies 85 per cent of drinking water in rural areas and 48 per cent of water requirements in urban areas. In addition, the challenges from Climate Change, water competition, population and poverty impacts clubbed with pollution, use of pesticides containing heavy metals etc. also pose the necessity of having a safe drinking water programme.
To ensure assured water quality, a massive effort is being made through a dedicated campaign 'Swacchh Jal se Suraksha' and States/ UTs are being sensitised to intensify testing of water samples and take immediate remedial action to make the campaign successful. So far, more than 15 lakh women have been trained nation-wide for testing water quality through field test kits (FTKs) and uploading data on WQMIS portal. With such an approach and sustainable use of water, we can ensure holistic development of our nation. A change from Water deficient to Water dependent to Water Sufficient Villages will ensure a greater potential of development at grassroots.
In a span of 20 years, 74% of the world’s population (5.8 billion people) used safely managed to drink water in 2020 which was up from 62% (3.8 billion) in 2000. Still, the challenges from Climate Change, changing land use patterns, Urbanisation, Increasing carbon footprint, deforestation impacting biodiversity loss, water competition, population and poverty impacts clubbed with pollution etc. can pose a big challenge to targets set. It is projected that by 2080, an estimated 1 billion additional people are expected to be impacted by high climate variability and climate-related water security threats.
The United Nations, coordinated by UN-Water, has developed the SDG-6 Global Acceleration Framework, which identifies five accelerators to support the achievement of SDG 6. These are
1. Governance
2. Financing
3. Capacity Development
4. Data &
5. Innovation
Using this framework, The United Nations State of the World’s Drinking Water report presents ways to address challenges and identifies emerging best practices and successes worldwide.
Further as per the report, Two monitoring platforms have been mandated to monitor progress towards the achievement of the drinking water target of SDG 6.
The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene. This is responsible for generating internationally comparable estimates of progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, using globally agreed-upon definitions and methods.
The UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking Water (GLAAS) is implemented by the World Health Organization (WHO) on behalf of UN-Water. GLAAS monitors components of WASH systems, including governance, monitoring, finance and human resources necessary to sustain and extend WASH services to all, especially the most vulnerable population groups.
Definitions
1. Drinking Water: The main source used by households for drinking, cooking, personal hygiene and other domestic uses.
2. Climate Change Adaptation: In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected change climate and its effects.
3. Climate Change Resilience: The capacity of social, economic and environmental systems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance, responding or reorganizing in ways that maintain their essential function, identity and structure, while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning and transformation.9
4. Climate Change Mitigation: Achieved by limiting or preventing greenhouse gas emissions and by activities that remove these gases from the atmosphere.
5. Nature-Based Solutions: Approaches that use nature and natural processes to deliver infrastructure, services and integrative solutions to meet the rising challenge of urban resilience. These interventions usually go beyond sectoral boundaries and require cross-sectoral partnerships. Nature-based solutions can provide multiple benefits to cities and address different societal challenges, including reducing disaster risk and building climate resilience, while also contributing to restoring biodiversity, creating opportunities for recreation, improving human health, water and food security, and supporting community well-being and livelihoods. Examples include forests, wetlands, mangroves, terracing, green corridors and bio-retention areas.
Source: WHO, UNICEF, World Bank. State of the world’s drinking water: an urgent call to action to accelerate progress on ensuring safe drinking water for all. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2022.
The Human Development Report 2021/2022 focusing on ‘Uncertain times, unsettled lives’ and approaching to shaping our future in a transforming world state that Climate change is predicted to increase both average temperatures and temperature variability, with temperature fluctuations projected to increase by 100 percent at lower latitudes. Resultantly, more than 40 percent of the world’s population which depend on water sources may get affected by such high climate variability.
Why Safe Drinking Water is Important?
UNICEF estimates that waterborne diseases have an economic burden of approximately USD 600 million a year in India. This is especially true for drought- and flood-prone areas, which affected a third of India’s population in the past couple of years.
Moreover, two-thirds of India’s 718 districts were affected by extreme water depletion as per the 2017 report of WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene. The chances of survival and improved outcomes for every child and in turn families is enhanced with safe and secure drinking water. The challenges for women in rural areas is immense and have been seen in the survey done to assess Water Carriage in India.
Source: WHO, UNICEF, World Bank. State of the world’s drinking water: an urgent call to action to accelerate progress on ensuring safe drinking water for all. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2022.
A step towards Blue Bharat
15th August 2019 was a landmark day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared from the Red Fort to take forward the Jal Jeevan Mission and announced that the Central and the State governments will jointly work on the Jal Jeevan Mission and promised to spend more than Rs. 3.50 Lakh Crores on this mission.
This Mission is being implemented in partnership with States to enable every household in all villages to have Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) by year 2024 wherein every family gets assured quality of safe drinking water of prescribed quality on regular and long term basis.
As of November 2022, about 1.30 Crore rural households have been added to provide the tap water supply in the financial year 2022-23 and as on date, 10.64 Crore (55%) households in rural India are getting tap water supply in their homes.
Status Of Tap Water Supply Coverage In Coverage In Rural Homes India
The Jal Jeevan (Water for Life) Mission was launched with such a mandate and in full alignment with SDG criteria for safely managed water supply to every rural household. This ambitious programme is currently being implemented in partnership with state governments.
It is important to note that public sector funding has been committed towards the JJM programme across all levels of government. Not just this, the Government of India further is driving a paradigm shift away from simply building water supply infrastructure, to concentrating on providing water supply as an ongoing service. The focus on having a decentralized, demand-driven, community-managed water supply systems is likely to ensure the sustainability of the programme.
At the village level, the Gram Panchayats, are empowered to commission construction work, operate and maintain infrastructure, collect community contributions, monitor water quality monitoring, and ensure source sustainability through water resource management. This may well act as a game changer in ensuring long term results.
The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation of the Ministry of Jal Shakti (‘Water Power’) provides technical and financial assistance to the states, supported by development partners. States have been encouraged and supported to develop robust institutions, with a focus on service delivery and financial sustainability. It is informed that approximately 11,000 support agencies, mainly NGOs, are being engaged by states to support implementation up to the level of villages. To provide support, 104 key resource centres have been selected and contracted by the ministry, and personnel within them trained by UNICEF.
Piped water facilities have been provided to more than seven crore households in the country in just three years under the ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’. For the first time, piped water has reached more than 30 lakh rural households in Karnataka till November 2022.
Challenges & Approaches:
One of the challenges is the fast rate of groundwater depletion in India due to the proliferation of drilling over the past few decades. It is estimated that groundwater from over 30 million access points supplies 85 per cent of drinking water in rural areas and 48 per cent of water requirements in urban areas. In addition, the challenges from Climate Change, water competition, population and poverty impacts clubbed with pollution, use of pesticides containing heavy metals etc. also pose the necessity of having a safe drinking water programme.
To ensure assured water quality, a massive effort is being made through a dedicated campaign 'Swacchh Jal se Suraksha' and States/ UTs are being sensitised to intensify testing of water samples and take immediate remedial action to make the campaign successful. So far, more than 15 lakh women have been trained nation-wide for testing water quality through field test kits (FTKs) and uploading data on WQMIS portal. With such an approach and sustainable use of water, we can ensure holistic development of our nation. A change from Water deficient to Water dependent to Water Sufficient Villages will ensure a greater potential of development at grassroots.
Saunand Somasi
Two decades (Twenty Two years) of award winning experience in Education industry with expertise Education Policy, Planning & Management, Program Development, General Administration, Research & Development along with establishment of IGNOU regional & study centres at remote locations. Chaired and Co-chaired sessions on International and National platforms with UNICEF, UNESCO, AICTE, Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP), NCERT and KVS.