Centre to states: Check ageing infra & prevent drinking water contamination

New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has issued an advisory to states to carry out comprehensive assessments of vulnerable areas and ageing infrastructure under its AMRUT scheme to prevent contamination of drinking water in urban areas, the Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday.

The advisory issued last month came days after several deaths in Indore due to contaminated drinking water.

“MoHUA has issued an advisory in January, 2026 to all the States to carry out comprehensive assessments of vulnerable areas and ageing infrastructure and to identify the crossing of sewer lines in close proximity to water supply lines and to conduct digital mapping of the existing water and sewer network using geo-spatial database created under AMRUT/AMRUT 2.0 in order to prevent health hazards,” Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Tokhan Sahu said in a written reply to a question.

He said that water and sanitation are state subjects, and repair of outdated pipelines and drainage/sewage system are the responsibility of the state governments and concerned urban local bodies.

However, the government of India supplements the efforts of the states through schematic interventions and advisories. It provides financial and technical support to the states through various missions/ schemes such as Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT)/ AMRUT 2.0, he said.

According to him, drinking water contamination in urban areas is a multi-factor issue and is generally attributable to distribution system vulnerabilities and interface issues with sewerage and sanitation infrastructure.

The minister also said that drinking water supplied in urban areas is required to conform to BIS IS 10500 standards, adding that however, deterioration in quality may occur due to infrastructure-related operational, environmental and maintenance factors across transmission, storage and distribution systems.

The ministry has also issued an advisory “Strengthening Water Quality Monitoring in Cities through Community Participation” under AMRUT 2.0 in November, 2024 to all the states to formulate a water quality monitoring strategy at the state or city level.

It was also to strengthen the institutional capacity for citywide monitoring of drinking water quality in urban areas along with digital display boards for water quality parameters for public information and awareness, the minister said.