Supporting India’s Jal Javeen Mission with In-Line Chlorination and Training

Safe Water Network is supporting the Government of India’s ambitious policy initiative Jal Jeevan Mission, a $90 billion dollar program providing safe drinking water directly to every rural household in India by 2024. The government has already reached 50% of its targeted households across the country and is moving rapidly to accomplish its objectives.

Leveraging our extensive field experience in India, Safe Water Network’s Technical Assistance team has developed a community-level system that utilizes overhead storage tanks, smart cloud-based monitoring of critical water quality parameters, and automatic chlorination to ensure microbial safety. Low-cost point-of-use water filters will also be implemented in schools and community institutions, providing additional quality assurance for municipal water supplies.

This program is being supported by the Pentair Foundation and these innovative systems show great potential well beyond India, to sub-Saharan Africa, the U.S., and globally.

Safe Water Network has also devised a complete management and operational training program for community managers and engineers to ensure that these newly installed rural water systems run smoothly. The program kicked off in January, when we trained government officials and engineers in the state of Haryana, a state with a population of over 25 million people, which has already installed a direct connection to every one of its rural households. Over the next three years we will support an additional twelve thousand operators and government leaders at the regional and local level across Haryana.

The training program is also accessible on-line for participants, making this program scalable. The iTapWater Toolkit, for example, contains comprehensive tutorials and tools to design, implement, and operate community piped water-supply systems, and can easily be adapted to other geographies.

As the Government of India completes the Jal Jeevan Mission over the next three years, there is significant opportunity for Safe Water Network to continue to provide the critical support they require at all levels of government. This technical assistance will ensure that the local skills, expertise, and capacity is available to optimize these systems, maintain water quality, and keep safe water flowing.