Ministry of Rural
Development is holding a Conference of State Ministers in-charge
of Rural Drinking Water Supply on 5th December, 2002.
Rural Drinking Water Supply has been given a high priority. It
has been targeted to provide access to safe drinking water to
all rural habitations by April 2004 and the Conference will review
the progress so far achieved.
The Conference would
be inaugurated by the Deputy Prime Minister Shri L.K. Advani and
Union Minister of Rural Development Shri Shanta Kumar will preside.
The Ministers and Secretaries in-charge of Rural Drinking Water
Supply from all the States, external agencies like World Bank,
UNICEF, WHO would participate in the Conference.
Important subjects
like "Swajaldhara" will be discussed in
the Conference. "Swajaldhara" aims at
scaling up of the reform initiatives commenced by the Government
in the rural water supply sector in 1999 through the Sector Reform
Pilot Projects presently under implementation in 67 districts.
Gram Panchayats and
Blocks adopting the reforms principles will also be eligible for
"Swajaldhara" projects. Accordingly, States
can implement "Swajaldhara" in Blocks/Gram
Panchayats/Villages following all the fundamental reforms principles.
"Swajaldhara" in other words, is an extension
of Sector Reform projects where the administrative unit for implementation
can even be the Blocks/Gram Panchayats/Village/habitation instead
of whole of the district as is presently the case. The Government
of India will meet 90% of the capital cost and the community needs
to pay only 10% of the cost upfront in cash.
Details of the programmes
like progress of rural habitation coverage, water quality and
sustainability issues and other support activities will also be
discussed in the Conference.
