Drinking Water Supply

This chapter focuses specifically on drinking water supply, which is divided into national, state, rural, and urban areas given the multiplicity of relevant instruments. The first section focuses on rural drinking supply. It reproduces the main national-level policy instrument in this area, the National Rural Drinking Water Programme Guidelines, 2013, select state-level legislation (panchayat acts) and instruments highlighting the push for reforms and privatisation in the sector. The second section focuses on urban drinking water supply. It reproduces extracts of a national statute and select state-level legal instruments. It also reproduces legal instruments seeking to foster reforms in urban water provisioning. The third section looks at drinking water supply in specific contexts and highlights select legal instruments concerning schools, post-disaster management, and work places. The last section highlights the issue of drinking water quality and quantity standards, a crucial dimension that has not been given yet the place it deserves in legislation.