Drinking water security

They also lack enough for washing, cooking, cleaning and production of food. As a result, they get sick, and their education and livelihoods suffer.

Water security is the ability to access enough clean water to maintain standards of food and goods production, sanitation and health care.

WaterAid India aims for long-lasting solutions to make clean water accessible for everyone, everywhere.

We motivate communities and promote local skills to develop, install and manage water security plans. We also work to integrate water security measures, like conservation, rainwater harvesting and water safety in the budgets and plans. Some instances of our work on water security are –

• In Madhya Pradesh state WaterAid is now member of State level Task Force, to support the implementation of "24 x7 Water Supply Systems or Drink water from Taps". In the first phase Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur & Gwalior cities are taken.
• In Bihar, Public Health Engineering Department provides technical support for decentralised water security plans and to ensure clean water.
• Jal Chaupal (a community level meeting to discuss water issues) is an innovative concept introduced in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. A participatory approach, Jal Chaupal motives rural communities to seek solutions for water problems.
• In Jharkhand and Odisha, pond sand filters and water ATMs are installed. 
• In Delhi, we encourage community-led models on distribution of water with mini piped water systems.
• WaterAid India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Jal Jeevan Mission, Assam - the flagship programme of the Government of India that aims to provide safe and adequate drinking water through a functional household tap to all households in rural India by 2024
• Water testing toolkits are used in locations with higher levels of fluoride, arsenic and bacterial contaminations in water. We train communities and help them in assessing the quality of water that they are consuming
• Together we are making a big difference. With governments, development partners, utility companies, community-based organisations, businesses and entrepreneurs, and local people, we work every day to improve people’s access to clean water.

We aim to promote local skills and empower the communities enough to develop, implement and manage water security plans. To improve people’s water security, we use a combination of different approaches:

• Build water security and water quality models at the community level
• Demonstrate processes such as Jal Chaupal to involve the communities to seek solutions
• Mobilise communities and strengthen mandated institutions, including health care centres, schools, anganwadis and so on
• Engage with relevant departments and technical support at the local levels in urban and rural communities

Together, are making a bigger difference. With governments, development partners, utility companies, community-based organisations, businesses and entrepreneurs, and local people, we work every day to improve people’s access to clean water.

• Support districts to integrate community-based management of water supply and drinking water security measures as part of the districts’ annual plans
• Train district labs to complement with water quality monitoring of chemical and other emerging parameters
• Jal Chaupals piloted in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as a platform to facilitate community participation in flagship Government programmes on water quality and household level water connections. We also provide technical assistance to the state Government of Bihar for clean water programmes