Parliament Question: Water quality and potability status in different States

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF JAL SHAKTI DEPARTMENT OF DRINKING WATER & SANITATION RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4071 ANSWERED ON 30/03/2026 WATER QUALITY AND POTABILITY STATUS IN DIFFERENT STATES 4071. SHRI SANT BALBIR SINGH: Will the Minister of JAL SHAKTI be pleased to state: (a) State-wise report of water samples tested across the country during the last five years, including parameters used to determine potability such as chemical, biological and heavy metal contamination; (b) States or districts that have been identified as having potable drinking water and the areas that have been declared unsafe or contaminated, with special reference to the State of Punjab; and (c) details of the agencies responsible for collecting and testing water samples, the frequency of testing and the standards followed? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR JAL SHAKTI (SHRI V. SOMANNA) (a) to (c) Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is under implementation since August, 2019, in partnership with States/ UTs including Punjab to make provision of potable tap water supply in adequate quantity, of prescribed quality and on regular & long-term basis to rural households. Drinking Water being a State subject, the responsibility of Planning, Designing, Approval, Implementation, Operation & Maintenance of drinking water supply schemes, including those under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), is vested with State/UT Governments. The Government of India supplements the efforts of the States/ UTs by providing financial, policy guidance and technical assistance. The State-wise details of water quality testing in laboratories reported by States/UTs on JJM-WQMIS since 2021-22 is at Annex-I. Under JJM, as per existing guidelines, Bureau of Indian Standards’ BIS:10500 standards are adopted as benchmark for quality of water being supplied through the piped water supply schemes. Bureau of Indian Standards IS–10500: 2012 specifies ‘acceptable limit’ and ‘permissible limit in the absence of alternate source’ for various physio-chemical and bacteriological parameters for drinking water quality as provided in Annex-II. Under JJM, while planning water supply schemes to provide tap water supply to households, priority is given to habitations affected by chemical contaminants. States/ UTs have been advised to plan and implement piped water supply schemes based on alternative safe water sources for the villages with water quality issues. Moreover, any water supply scheme undertaken under JJM is approved Page 1 of 4only after the recommendation of a Source Finding Committee of the respective State Government, to the effect that the identified water source through which the scheme is planned, has sufficient yield for sustaining water supply as per required norm, for the scheme design period. Significant progress has been made in the country since the launch of JJM, towards enhancing access to tap water for rural households. At the start of JJM in August 2019, only 3.23 Crore rural households were reported to have tap water connections. So far, as reported by State/UTs, more than 12.59 Crore additional rural households have been provided with tap water connections under JJM. Thus, as on 24.03.2026, out of 19.36 Crore rural households in the country, more than 15.83 Crore households are reported to have tap water connections in their homes. (Source: JJM-IMIS). The Ministry of Housing Affairs (MoHUA) has informed that as reported by States/UTs on the AMRUT 2.0 platform during the period from 1st January, 2024 to 31st December, 2024, a total of 3,32,170 water quality samples out of 3,35,278 samples tested at Water Treatment Plants (WTPs) and 22,18,838 samples out of 22,45,200 samples tested at the household level in urban areas were found compliant for the parameters E. coli, Arsenic and Fluoride. State-wise details of water quality testing in urban areas are available at the website - https://amrut.mohua.gov.in/wqa/dashboard. MoHUA has published Manual on Water Supply and Treatment Systems (Drink from Tap) in March 2024 for reference by the States/ Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) for designing, implementation, drinking water quality and monitoring of the water supply projects. Also, MoHUA has 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 and 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 & awareness. Through AMRUT/AMRUT 2.0 and in convergence with the State, 3.03 lakh water tap connections and 2,457.50 km of water pipeline network have been provided in the urban areas of Punjab and 113 MLD of water treatment capacity have been developed so far. Approved projects cover further development of 1014.78 MLD of water treatment capacity in the ULBs. ***** Page 2 of 4Annex-I Annex-I referred to in reply to Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 4071 answered on 30.03.2026 State-wise details of water quality testing reported by States/UTs Sl. State No. of samples tested in lab No. 2021-2022 2022-2023 2023-2024 2024-2025 2025-2026* 1. A&N Islands 992 1,152 984 1,172 2,711 2. Andhra Pradesh 3,64,606 6,14,014 6,99,999 6,86,179 6,97,156 3. Arunachal Pradesh 26,007 29,178 39,238 22,271 9,862 4. Assam 2,16,323 1,69,108 2,97,405 2,70,466 1,95,231 5. Bihar 2,02,493 2,32,425 1,60,783 2,74,547 1,33,290 6. Chhattisgarh 68,935 1,11,208 1,23,175 1,60,891 98,274 7. DNH & DD - - - - - 8. Goa 8,571 8,881 10,336 13,660 7,469 9. Gujarat 2,39,232 2,57,489 1,53,057 71,204 2,97,144 10. Haryana 96,910 82,725 69,702 60,757 41,042 11. Himachal Pradesh 2,66,754 1,98,497 2,20,428 2,41,458 2,64,430 12. Jammu & Kashmir 1,97,360 2,67,334 2,53,364 2,66,547 2,99,705 13. Jharkhand 1,49,724 1,95,314 2,14,431 2,18,562 2,01,129 14. Karnataka 1,59,533 2,22,732 2,66,532 3,21,759 2,41,358 15. Kerala 2,41,787 4,55,436 6,36,043 7,00,732 3,44,306 16. Ladakh 5,359 5,480 7,706 10,229 8,325 17. Lakshadweep 3,483 4,778 6,880 7,897 3,519 18. Madhya Pradesh 3,44,612 6,37,637 5,74,409 5,74,798 4,70,108 19. Maharashtra 69,215 3,93,623 6,42,396 5,87,570 5,35,799 20. Manipur 17,413 22,373 17,413 19,508 5,473 21. Meghalaya 7,104 32,805 51,836 40,657 35,803 22. Mizoram 18,930 37,306 29,224 21,908 7,704 23. Nagaland 4,308 12,747 7,947 6,751 1,258 24. Odisha 2,16,816 2,37,965 2,60,445 2,72,406 2,32,196 25. Puducherry 942 997 818 287 - 26. Punjab 14,930 24,616 33,107 67,481 68,102 27. Rajasthan 1,11,407 1,41,441 1,98,476 1,80,063 69,534 28. Sikkim 6,252 7,689 15,527 17,297 6,875 29. Tamil Nadu 3,46,263 6,71,421 8,48,706 9,07,742 9,22,464 30. Telangana 2,23,180 2,46,089 2,91,673 2,85,183 2,70,985 31. Tripura 30,939 19,572 50,701 82,287 55,008 32.. Uttar Pradesh 99,006 3,16,618 6,23,246 10,67,899 8,14,562 33. Uttarakhand 71,203 93,407 1,19,958 1,25,553 1,02,997 34. West Bengal 3,41,587 4,67,718 5,74,096 6,82,526 4,58,258 Total 41,72,176 62,19,775 75,00,041 82,68,247 69,02,077 * As on 24.03.2026 Source: JJM-WQMIS Page 3 of 4Annex-II Annex-II referred to in reply to Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 4071 answered on 30.03.2026 ‘Acceptable limit’ and ‘permissible limit in the absence of alternate source’ prescribed by Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) (extract) for various physio-chemical and bacteriological parameters for drinking water quality S. Characteristics Unit Acceptable Permissible No. Limit Limit 1. pH value .. 6.5 -8.5 No relaxation 2. Total dissolved solids Milligram/ litre 500 2,000 3. Turbidity NTU 1 5 4. Chloride Milligram/ litre 250 1,000 5. Total Alkalinity Milligram/ litre 200 600 6. Total Hardness Milligram/ litre 200 600 7. Sulphate Milligram/ litre 200 400 8. Iron Milligram/ litre 1.0 No relaxation 9. Total Arsenic Milligram/ litre 0.01 No relaxation 10. Fluoride Milligram/ litre 1.0 1.5 11. Nitrate Milligram/ litre 45 No relaxation 12. Total Coliform Shall not be detectable in any 100 ml sample bacteria 13. E-coli or Shall not be detectable in any 100 ml sample thermo- tolerant coliform bacteria Page 4 of 4