THIS is Cool Stuff. Pure drinking watermay soon cease to be an idyllic dream.Water testing laboratories in every district within the purview of the 8th Planare being set up by the rural development ministry to monitor and surveythe quality of potable water in ruralIndia. The Rajiv Gandhi NationalDrinking Water Commission is considering issuing water quality testing kits tovoluntary organisations involved inrural development work.
Rs 5, 100 crore have been earmarkedfor drinking waier facilities: 29 important parameters in water quality analysiswill be lab te@ted. The exercise aims, byidentification* and treatment at thesource, to conserve water, rechargeaquifiers, eradicate guineaworm, control fluorosis, remove excessive iron,and control brackishness.
"The quality of water supplied hadsuffered as the states seemed to be moreconcerned with the quantity of waterbeing supplied," says S K Biswas, additional advisor to the project. The laboratories will have the daily capacity tocarry out tests on 12 parameters for 20samples, each lab with I trained chemist, and field staff to collect and preserve samples. India already has 156 district level laboratories, and 130 more have been approved by the Central and state governments. Three more mobile laboratories, to be set up in Jammu & Kashmir, are to be added to the existing 21.
The scheme will cost the Central government Rs 5 lakh per laboratory. Rs I lakh for equipment has already been sanctioned, and the Centre will pay for the cost of the building, and recurring expenses for 2 years. The portable kit Will cost about Rs 5,000.
"The strategies adopted are also being modified in accordance with the recommendations of the B B Sundaresan committee, which had indicated that non-governmental organisations, institutions and schools be involved in providing potable water to the people," said Ram Gopal of the Defence Labo-ratory, Jodhpur, who designed the kit. The committee also recommended set-ting up a separate agency to monitor water quality, and that water quality maps be made available to monitoring agencies.