PM unveils five-pronged strategy for drinking water

He said the three other aspects were entrusting the responsibility of water supply management to local institutions and building their capacity in the management of water supply.

Promising that funds would not be a constraint in the implementation of these vital programmes, Manmohan said the Centre had increased the allocation to Rs 4,050 crore in 2005-6, an increase of 40 per cent over the previous year’s Rs 2,900 crore.

The Prime Minister said the goal was to ensure that the ‘uncovered’ 55,067 habitations were provided with water supply at the earliest and that the problem of 2.8 lakh habitations, which had slipped out of full coverage, was addressed.

Manmohan also said that there were over two lakh habitations affected by a variety of problems flowing from poor quality of water supplied. ‘‘These include excess fluoride, excess salinity, excess iron and so on,’’ he said, adding that under the UPA government’s flagship programme, Bharat Nirman, all these issues would be addressed comprehensively.

‘‘We have also ignored the management of environmental resources within which the security of safe and assured water supply is embedded,’’ he said and suggested comprehensive reforms in governance. ‘‘In other words, we must not merely fix pipes, but also fix institutions that fix pipes,’’ he said.

Advocating that responsibility of water supply must shift towards civic institutions, he pointed out that elsewhere in the developed world it was the primary mandate of such institutions, ‘‘and we should move to this model’’.