Rajasthan State PCS

• 18 Jan 2022

Drinking Water Testing Laboratories got 'NABL Accreditation' in all the Districts of the State

Why in News

• On January 17, 2022, Rajasthan's Water Minister Dr. Mahesh Joshi informed that the drinking water quality testing laboratories operating in all the districts under the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) have got the 'NABL Accreditation' certification for drinking water quality testing in the state. .

Key Points

• State level drinking water quality testing laboratory is established in PHED at its headquarters in the capital Jaipur, besides district level laboratories are being run in other 32 districts. Now all these 33 laboratories have got certification from the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), an independent national level organization.
• NABL is an independent national level body for certification of testing laboratories in the country. It gives NABL certification to testing laboratories under ISO/IEC: 17025.
• This institution is established in the Government of India under the 'Quality Council of India', as a third party agency for 'NABL Accreditation' of Laboratories, for the legal identity of laboratories, the number of manpower employed in it as well as their qualifications and experience, Performs certification after 'Performance Audit' on the basis of points like time bound calibration of equipments etc.
• In an important decision by the state government to promote drinking water quality testing at the general level, the rate of 16-point based drinking water quality test has been reduced from Rs 1000 to Rs 600 for all citizens. With this, facility of quality checking based on Fluoride, Nitrate, Thermo tolerant Coliform bacteria, Total coliform bacteria, Arsenic, Iron, Sulphate, Chloride, pH, color and order etc. will be provided to the people in all 'NABL Accredited' quality testing laboratories of the state. .
• Under the Jal Jeevan Mission in the state, besides providing 'Har Ghar Jal' connections to all households in rural areas by the year 2024, 102 new block level drinking water quality testing laboratories will be installed in the current financial year in view of drinking water quality under Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance Program.
• Under Jal Jeevan Mission, more than 12 thousand 'Field Testing Kits' have been procured for distribution in Gram Panchayats for monitoring of clean and quality drinking water supply through 'Har Ghar Jal' connection in approved projects for rural areas. Using this kit, the members of Village Water and Sanitation Committees constituted in 43,323 villages of the state will be able to do a time bound quality check of drinking water supply through 'Har Ghar Jal' connection in JJM.