New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS): With a view to assess the quality and quantity of water supplied to people, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has kickstarted the ground survey of Pey Jal Survekshan from December 15, officials said on Wednesday.

The Pey Jal Survekshan under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) 2.0 was launched by Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri, on September 9, 2022 to assess the service level compliance of the city with respect to quality, quantity, and coverage of water supply, sewerage and septage management, extent of reuse and recycle of used water and conservation of water bodies in 500 (485 after merger) AMRUT cities.

Officials said that the survey will serve as a monitoring tool and an accelerator for the AMRUT Mission while also fostering healthy competition among cities. The Ministry has engaged a third-party agency, IPSOS to conduct the survey.

The Ministry has conducted capacity building workshops on Pey Jal Survekshan toolkit and web portal for all the participating Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). Water utility services, used water utility services, water bodies, Non-Revenue Water (NRW) estimation, best practices and innovation are the key focus areas.

Survekshan will capture the extent of household water tap & sewer connection, quality & quantity of water supplied to citizens, provision of complaint redressal and health of water bodies among other parameters. It will also provide insights on financial sustainability of ULBs in terms of revenue generation versus the expenditure incurred on water & sewerage services. With the inclusion of Citizen Perception Survey, citizen-driven accountability system will be established.

Scores will be assigned to the cities, and city-water report cards reflecting each city's water health will be published. The outcome of the suvey will reflect the status of water security in the ULBs and will help in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)- 6, said the officials.