Topics Covered: Conservation related issues.
BIS’ draft standard for drinking water supply:
Context:
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has prepared a draft standard for the supply system of piped drinking water– ‘Drinking water supply quality management system — requirements for piped drinking water supply service’.
- The draft has been prepared by the BIS’ Public Drinking Water Supply Services Sectional Committee.
Highlights of the draft:
- It outlines the process of water supply, from raw water sources to household taps.
- It outlines the requirements for a water supplier or a water utility on how they should establish, operate, maintain and improve their piped drinking water supply service.
- It states that the water treatment process should be planned in such a manner that after treatment the drinking water should conform to the Indian Standard (IS) 10500 developed by the BIS.
- It contains guidelines for top management of the water utility, in terms of accountability and customer focus, establishing a quality policy for their service, monitoring the quality of water released to people, and conducting a water audit.
- It states that the concept of district metering area (DMA) should be adopted where possible. DMA is a concept for controlling leakages in the water network, which is essentially divided into a number of sectors, called the DMAs, and where flow meters are installed to detect leaks.
- It mentions that water should be sampled at the treatment plant every four hours against quality parameters. In the distribution system, the sampling should be done every eight hours at the water reservoirs. Random sampling should also be done at household levels.
Significance of the draft and need for it:
The standard holds importance as it is expected to make the process of piped water supply more uniform, especially in rural and underdeveloped areas of the country where the system runs on various government orders and circulars.
Sources: Indian Express.
