(Video) Rajya Sabha TV (RSTV) The Big Picture: Drinking Water: Quality & Challenges

Topic: Drinking Water: Quality & Challenges

Guest:

Avinash Mishra, (Advisor, Water Resources, Niti Aayog)
Prof. C. K. Varshney, (Former Dean, School of Environment Sciences, JNU)
Sudhir Krishna, (Former Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, GoI)

Topic Description:

Mumbai residents need not buy reverse osmosis (RO) water purifiers as a study by the Union Consumer Affairs Ministry has found samples of tap water collected from the financial capital compliant with the Indian standards for drinking water. However, other metro cities of Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai failed in almost 10 out of 11 quality parameters tested by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) which is under the aegis of the Consumer Affairs Ministry. Similarly, samples drawn from 17 other state capitals were not as per the prescribed specifications for drinking water. Releasing the second phase study, Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said, "Out of 20 state capitals, all the 10 samples of piped water drawn from Mumbai were found to comply with all 11 parameters, while other cities are failing in one or more." In the third phase, samples from the capital cities of northeastern states and from 100 smart cities will be tested and their results are expected by January 15, 2020.