Workshop with alumni from the different states to understand their progress on source sustainability; monitoring and greywater management

Date: March 1, 2023 

Centre for Science and Environment was designated as a key resource centre by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS) under the Ministry of Jal Shakti in the FY 2021–22. As a key resource centre, CSE is training Level 2 officials working for the JalJeevan Mission (JJM) - the latest programme to bring sustainable and clean drinking water to every household. These officials include engineers from the rank of superintending engineer and below. They implement the different water-related structures on the ground. These engineers are trained under the broad topics of source sustainability, greywater management and affordable drinking water quality technologies. JJM was launched in 2019. Through it, the target of supplying safe and sustainable water was reintroduced for the sixth time since 1969. The country failed to achieve the target every time before this and even villages with full coverage of water supply slipped to uncovered or partially covered status. The main reason was that the source of water - mostly groundwater - was either contaminated or not recharged efficiently.

This time, source sustainability and water quality monitoring were brought under special focus in JJM. Also, as the mission targets to provide drinking water at the rate of 55 litres per capita per day, greywater generated due to usage of that water (coming out of the kitchen and washing areas) is also an area of focus. After completion of 16 training programmes and capacitating more than 1,000 L2 officials on the above mentioned topics, CSE developed an impact analysis of these trainings-in order to capture the changes on the ground and the success of policy interventions. An alumni workshop was organized on 01 March 2023 on the Zoom platform to interact with the trained officials to see whether they are able to make any impact in JJM's target of supplying water to households.

CSE interacted with officials of 25 states/UTs to understand their actions on the field and the effect of policy interventions on source sustainability through groundwater recharge, affordable water quality monitoring and greywater management. An online form was distributed among the officials to get information on their progress post CSE’s training programme.