Guidelines to provide safe drinking water in remaining arsenic and fluoride affected habitations in rural India on mission mode
About 76 percent of rural habitations in India have achieved a fully covered (FC) status, under the National Rural Drinking Water Program, with 40 liters per capita daily (lpcd), but this coverage is primarily through hand-pumps and does not necessarily translate into sustainable and good quality service delivery. More than 71,000 habitations are suffering from problems of water quality and only 52 percent of the 170 million plus rural households have access to tap water. The major physio-chemical pollutants include Arsenic, Fluoride, Iron, Salinity and Nitrate, with critical being Arsenic and Fluoride since they pose immediate health hazard compared to the others.