Context:

• Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation announced that Swajal schemes in 115 aspirational districts of the country.
• Govt also earmarked Rs.1000 crores for addressing the drinking water needs of 27,544 arsenic and fluoride affected habitations of the country in this financial year under the National Water Quality Sub-Mission (NWQSM).
• Central govt called upon the states to ensure that the Sustainable Development Goal ‘safe drinking water for all’ is achieved in India by 2030.

What is the Swajal scheme?

• This Swajal scheme was launched by the government for sustained water supply in rural areas. 90 per cent of this project is funded by the government and 10 per cent is funded by the beneficiary communities.
• The management of this operation is managed by local villagers and hundreds of technicians will be trained under this scheme to maintain and operate the units.
• All the villages will get water supplied through fitted pipes. This will ensure that the water is not contaminated. The maintenance of these pipes will be taken care of by the technicians.

Supply of clean water to aspirational districts

• The government has chosen 115 rural districts which will receive rapid transformation to match up to government’s vision of ‘New India’.
• The selection criteria of these districts are dependent on six socio-economical parameters, according to Niti Aayog. The parameters are health and nutrition, education, financial inclusion and skill development, agriculture and water resources and basic infrastructure.
• 35 districts that face Left Wing Extremist (LWE) violence and 15 districts from Jammu and Kashmir which experience terrorism are included in this scheme.
  Government aspired to bring technological change in these districts as well and transforming them rapidly to develop the nation further.
• Around 2 lakh people die in India every year because of the immense water shortage and 600 million people of this country don’t have access to clean drinking water.

Source:India Today