Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Jal Shakti held Technical Session on “Rural WASH Partnerships – the way forward’ on the second day of the 7^th India Water Week. The focus of the session, chaired by Minister of Jal Shakti, was on how the partnerships with academia, WASH experts and other partners can be harnessed to achieve the targets of the two flagship programs of DDWS – Jal Jeevan Mission and the Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen phase-II. Union Minister also launched the toolkit for Swachh Survekshan Grameen (SSG) 2023 and the web portal for the ‘Twinpit to Retrofit Abhiyan’ at the session.  

An important initiative under Swachh Bharat Mission is the Swachh Survekshan Grameen (SSG). DDWS has been conducting SSG since 2018 onwards to rank the States and Districts on the basis of their performance attained on key quantitative and qualitative Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) (SBM(G)) parameters and engaging rural community in improvement of their sanitation status through an intensive and holistic IEC campaign. The previous experiences have been that SSG provided impetus to the results achievement by States, which reflected in improvements of program indicators during the SSG period. In similar spirit, to encourage States, Districts and Panchayats, DDWS intends to undertake SSG 2023, which envisages to further significantly intensify the SSG campaign, and make it much more participative and competitive. The Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2023 Toolkit comprises information on various stages of assessment, baseline rankings of the Panchayats and Districts based on their ODF Plus progress as reported on SBM-G Integrated Management Information System (IMIS).

 

 

Applauding the efforts of SBM(G) team, Sh. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said, “SSG is not just a ranking exercise but also a vehicle for creating Jan Andolan and ensuring prompt action for achievement of SBM(G) 2.0 programme elements.” Union Minister also highlighted the fact that self-assessment by Panchayats on ODF Plus progress for all its villages, as part of SSG 2023 will not only enhance participation from community/panchayats but at the same time also act as a tool to build capacities of Panchayats on ODF Plus verticals.

Another SBM(G) activity, targeting sustaining the ODF status, is the ‘Retrofit to Twin-pit Campaign’ which was launched on Swachh Bharat Diwas in October this year by Sh. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. The objective of the campaign is promoting simple on-site technologies through retrofitting the existing single pit toilets into twin pit toilets. It also aims to generate awareness about the safe disposal of faecal sludge in rural households. Speaking about the next phase of the campaign, Union Minster said “I am very happy to launch the web module of the campaign, which will be utilized for updating baseline data of States/Districts and the achievements of the States/ UTs in this campaign would be assessed based on the progress reported in the module starting 19^th November 2022 up to 26^th January 2023.” The Minister also urged all the partners gathered at the forum, to support the states in achieving the objectives of both SSG 2023 and the Retrofit to Twin pit Campaigns.

The event also had sessions on various program elements of JJM and SBM(G) phase-II. Four sessions were held by JJM Professor Chairs viz. ‘Sustainability of drinking water sources’ by Prof. Pradip Kumar Tewari, IIT-Jodhpur, ‘Utility development & water economics’ by Prof. Gopal Naik, IIM-Bengaluru, ‘IT and Data Science for service delivery’ by Prof. Amit Mitra, IIT-Kanpur and ‘Decentralized governance for water and sanitation services’ by Prof. Amita Bhide, TISS-Mumbai. This was followed by three sessions by the WASH Experts viz. ‘Faecal Sludge Management’ by Sh. Sasanka Velidandla from WASH institute, ‘Greywater Management’ by Sh. V. K. Madhavan from WaterAid India and ‘Water Quality’ by Dr. Sundarrajan Krishnan from INREM Foundation.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Vini Mahajan, Secretary-DDWS commended the contributions of all the Rural WASH partners to both JJM and SBM(G), “I thank you all for your feedback and expert inputs you bring to DDWS programs and I hope this enriching partnerships help our states and UTS in achieving the JJM and SBM targets”. Secretary also added that though the WASH targets of the country are ambitious, the efforts to achieve them are backed by strong political will, adequate funding and the partnerships among all stakeholders especially the Rural WASH Partners. 

The India Water Week  is an annual activity of Ministry of Jal Shakti and this year, the 7^th Water Week has been inaugurated on 01/11/2022 at the India Expo Centre in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh by the President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu, amidst the august presence of Governor Uttar Pradesh, Smt. Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and Ministers of State for Jal Shakti, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel and Shri Bishweswar Tudu.

DDWS has put up 20 stalls at the IWW-2022 focusing on state-of-the-art WASH technologies, innovations and solutions. While the experts at the sessions share their rich experiences in the field of water management, the exhibition supports technologies for sustainable development for WASH. Other countries participating in the weeklong event are Finland, Germany, Israel and European Union. People who are working in WASH sector must attend the conference and visit the DDWS exhibition at Hall No 6, to understand the intricacies, policy interventions, programme implementation and way forward for WASH in the country.

माननीय जल शक्ति मंत्री, श्री @gssjodhpur ने इंडिया एक्सपो सेंटर और मार्ट, ग्रेटर नोएडा में सातवें भारत जल सप्ताह के दौरान रेट्रोफिटिंग मॉड्यूल का शुभारंभ किया।#retrofittotwinpit #ODFPlus #SwachhBharatMission #SBMG #IndiaWaterWeek@mahajan_vini @MoJSDDWS pic.twitter.com/aBIGyIQW5K

— Swachh Bharat I #AzadiKaAmritMahotsav (@swachhbharat) November 2, 2022

 

Union Minister Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat Addressing the Session

Union Minister of Jal Shakti Launches the 'Retrofitting Module'

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