Chapter: Gist of Press Information Bureau Articles

Topic: Water Security in Rural Area

Q. What is State Water and Sanitation Mission (SWSM)/ DWSM?

• As a step towards achieving coordination and convergence among State Departments dealing with Rural Drinking Water Supply, Rural Sanitation, School Education, Health, Women and Child Development, Water Resources, Agriculture, etc. a State Water and Sanitation Mission (SWSM) has been set up at the State/ UT level.

• It is a registered society under the aegis of the Department/ Board/Nigam/ Authority/ Agency, implementing the rural water supply programme in the State.
• It provides operational flexibility to the States/ UTs, so that the desired thrust is there for an integrated implementation of and institutionalising community participation under the NRDWP and Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC).
• The SWSM is headed by the Chief Secretary/Additional Chief Secretary/ Development Commissioner with Secretaries of other concerned Departments as members. Experts in the field of Hydrology, IEC, HRD, MIS, Media, NGOs, etc. co-opt as members.

• All States have set up a Water and Sanitation Support Organisation (WSSO) under State Water and Sanitation Mission (SWSM), to provide software support to districts and blocks in the areas of Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance (i.e. Drinking Water Testing Labs) Computerisation projects, Monitoring &Evaluation and IEC & HRD activities, Research &Development activities, etc. These are activities for which 100% funds are provided (as Support Funds) by the Government.

• District Water and Sanitation Missions (DWSM) constituted at the district level, functions under the supervision, control and guidance of Zilla Panchayats/Parishads.
• States which do not have a proper PRI set up in place, as in case of 6th Schedule Areas and desire to supervise the working of the DWSM through alternative mechanism, put in place a suitable body. The DWSM supervises the preparation of the District Water Security Plan and its implementation.

• All the village water security plans are consolidated and analysed at the district level by the DWSM. At the district level, convergence of all the other related programmes and funding is ensured by the DWSM with some of the major development programmes like the MNREGS, Integrated Watershed Management Programme projects of Dept. of Land Resources, Central and State Finance Commission funds , NRHM, various Watershed and Irrigation schemes of the Ministry of Agriculture, various schemes of the Ministry of Water Resources etc.

Q. Block Resource Centres (BRCs)?

In 2010 it was decided to put in place a support structure at the Block level to enable sustainability of drinking water supply systems, by supporting the establishment of Block Resource Centers (BRCs).

These centers at the Block level are manned by coordinators with experience in the field of development communication, institution building, training and rural development to give support and continuous handholding to the Gram Panchayats and Village communities to achieve the goal of a sustainable water system maintained by PRIs.

Q. What is National Key Resource Center?

The Department after due examination has identified about 25 institutions/ organizations having domain knowledge and expertise in the drinking water and sanitation sector as National Key Resource Centers (KRCs).

The National KRCs provide training, orientation and capacity development of engineers, PRI representatives and master trainers at State and District levels. These centers also extend technical guidance to State Communication and Capacity Development Units (CCDU) for IEC and HRD activities.

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