"I am very happy to be present at the inauguration of this very important Conference of Ministers of State Governments in charge of rural drinking water supply and sanitation. I compliment my colleague, Minister of Rural Development, Dr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, and his Ministry for organizing this Conference to address an issue of vital national importance for a country of India's size and India's diversity.

The Conference has rightly decided to focus on the issue of sustainability of water supply systems and sound water management. Our efforts to provide drinking water supply to all our citizens would depend critically on environmental sustainability, with which our water security is intimately connected.

Access to safe and adequate drinking water and sanitation are key to the well being of our people. Drinking water is one of the key components of the Bharat Nirman programme for building efficient, modern rural infrastructure. Accordingly, sufficient resources have been allocated for this important sector. There has been a substantial enhancement in the allocation from Rs.4,560 crore during 2006-07 to Rs.6,500 crores during the current financial year for rural drinking water supply schemes. The onus now is on the State Government to ensure that these resources get translated into actual entitlement of safe drinking water and improved services for the benefit of common man.

Since the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme was introduced in 1972-73, there has been considerable progress in providing safe water to habitations. But the numbers of "slipped-back" habitations increases each year on account of the failure of sources and this is a major lacunae in the programme as it has been implemented thus far and this points to the urgent need for effective action to ensure the sustainability of water sources. We need proper institutional arrangements to ensure that both scientific expertise for location of sources as well as collective action for water recharge are effectively mobilized.

This was part of the original concept behind the technology mission of drinking water started by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1987. In fact, the National Drinking Water Supply Mission was originally titled "Technology Mission on Drinking Water and Related Water Management" underscoring the importance of comprehensive water management for sustainability of sources of water. Unfortunately, in the course of implementation, this programme became largely an engineering enterprise of drilling tube wells and the water management aspect particularly with regard to ensuring the sustainability was either relegated to the background or forgotten altogether.

Institutional arrangements at the state level such as "Source Finding Committees" have unfortunately remained largely dysfunctional. These must be revived and the advanced scientific expertise now at our disposal should be fully utilized for this purpose.

One problem we have with the management of the Drinking Water Sector is that this is one activity within the portfolio of rural development programmes which is still handled at the State level, at the level of State capital and not at the district level. Other programmes with which it seeks integration have moved to being managed at the district level. I sincerely believe the time has come to do the same thing with regard to other supply schemes as well.

I therefore request State Governments to consider empowering district level institutional structures to handle the issue of water supply. This is also a constitutional obligation as water supply is one of the basic functions to be carried out by rural and urban local bodies as per the 11th Schedule of our Constitution.

The second major issue that I would like all of you to consider is that of financial resources and sustainability. Where sources are difficult to find, water recharge activities could be funded at the district level through the NREGP and district based plans of the departments of agriculture and irrigation. Panchayati Raj bodies should be encouraged to manage and financially sustain the operation of the water systems created.

A third issue is that of the technical capacity of managers of drinking water supply systems. Officers who today work in the drinking water supply sector largely come from a civil engineering background while the groundwater based systems call for expertise in areas like geo-hydrology of ground water based systems. There has therefore to be planned capacity building for the staff of public health engineering departments in geo-hydrology so that this staff are able to appreciate issues of environmental sustainability more effectively.

If environment provides the backward linkage for drinking water, its forward linkage is with health. Increasingly, we are faced with a situation where diseases related to public health, number of communicable diseases, especially water borne diseases, are on the increase. Here again, the Department of Drinking Water has to take proactive action to sensitise the community on safe water and its use. Quite often water borne diseases occur even in those habitations where we have provided safe water.

It is a matter of satisfaction that my Hon'ble friend, Dr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh ji has been personally leading the programme for rural sanitation. The central plan outlay for central sanitation has increased from Rs.740 crore in 2006-07 to Rs.1060 crore in the current year marking an increase of 43% over the previous year. The Total Sanitation Campaign is now being implemented in 572 districts of the States and Union Territories.

To add vigour to the sanitation drive, Government of India initiated an incentive scheme for Gram Panchayats, Blocks and Districts called the "Nirmal Gram Puraskar" in the year 2003. This programme seems to have galvanized the PRIs and communities tremendously particularly in the last three years. While in 2004-05 only 40 PRIs were felicitated, during 2007-08 a total number of 4945 PRIs have been the recipients of Nirmal Gram Puraskar.

Our planet will encounter in the next few decades severe shortages of water if we are not careful in conserving and preserving the precious and increasingly scarce water resources of our country. In our country, we should move forward, move towards forging a partnership between the government and citizens for conserving water. Government agencies must create a framework for collective action with NGOs and Civil Society at large.

I am confident that this important Conference will be a important forum for all States to contribute their suggestions for a better policy framework to address these key issues. I am hopeful that your deliberations will translate into a passionate commitment to provide affordable and safe drinking water and clean and low cost sanitation facilities to all sections of our people. I wish your deliberations all success."