Centre mulls over prescribing quality norms for drinking water

In a bid to ensure supply of safe drinking water, the Centre is mulling over prescribing minimum quality standards for potable drinking water to all households across the country.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has tasked the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to develop standards for supply of potable drinking water to complement the Clean India campaign. Municipal agencies will have to adhere to the standards to ensure quality assurance of potable water supplied through pipelines to households across the country.
“These standards would be made mandatory in a phased manner,” an official said.
The mandatory standards for piped drinking water in rural and urban areas will be notified in consultation with Urban Development and Rural Development Ministries.
The government would also specify the testing and sampling methodology to ascertain the quality of water.

An inter-ministerial group on consumer advocacy would oversee the implementation of the standards.

The ministry is also mulling changes to the Bureau of Indian Standards Act to bring “services and systems” to ensure enforceable minimum standards in these areas.
The amendments would also allow the BIS to prescribe standards for more products from the current 90 items and enhancement of penalties for offences. At present, the BIS Standards are applicable only for articles (products) and processes.

Also, steps are being taken to develop new standards for segregation and disposal of garbage. At present, there are quality standards only for articles (products) and processes such as ISO certifications. The amendment to the Bureau of Indian Standards Act will empower the government to bring any article or service under mandatory certification.

The amendments also have provisions to simplify the procedure for grant of new licences and slapping harsher penalties for misuse. The amendments propose making misuse of ISI mark a cognisable offence.