Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation partners with J-PAL South Asia on clean water access for millions in India through innovative, scientifically-proven solutions
The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), Government of India, has partnered with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) South Asia to accelerate the adoption of scientifically proven solutions to curb water pollution.
This partnership will enable DDWS to leverage J-PAL South Asia's deep understanding of vulnerable communities in India to accomplish its goal of providing safe and adequate drinking water to all rural households by 2030.
Under this initiative, J-PAL South Asia will be working with DDWS to design innovative solutions, test them for effectiveness with randomised evaluations, implement the solutions with proven effectiveness and scale-up the ones delivering maximum impact.
This collaboration will also enable DDWS to strengthen its existing programmes such as the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) as well as to launch new, evidence-based programmes, leveraging cutting-edge academic insights from J-PAL South Asia’s global network of researchers. It will catalyse effective evidence-based solutions to address what has become one of the greatest existential challenges of our times.
A memorandum of understanding was signed by Yogendra Kumar Singh, Director, JJM-VI and Shobhini Mukerji, Executive Director, J-PAL South Asia, in the presence of Vini Mahajan, Secretary, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ashok K.K. Meena, Officer on Special Duty, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Chandra Bhushan Kumar, Additional Secretary and Mission Director, JJM and Jitendra Srivastava, Joint Secretary and Mission Director, Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM).
There is an urgent need for scientifically-proven policies to ease access to clean water. More than 600 million people in India are facing serious water shortages, a trend exacerbated by a rapidly warming planet. And 70 percent of the water is unfit for drinking as per a NITI Aayog report in 2018, threatening the well-being of vulnerable communities.
This partnership is under the auspices of Solutions and Advancements Through Research for Air and Water (SARWA). SARWA is part of the Air and Water Labs, launched by J-PAL in collaboration with Community Jameeel in 2023 to improve clean air and water access globally by scaling up effective programs.
About J-PAL South Asia
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research centre working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of over 1000 affiliated researchers at universities around the world, J-PAL conducts randomised impact evaluations to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty.
J-PAL was launched at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003 and has 7 regional offices around the world. J-PAL South Asia, hosted by the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Chennai, has built partnerships for the generation of new research and advancement of evidence-informed policymaking with 30 Indian state and central government ministries, as well as training partnerships with the governments of Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh.
For more information, visit povertyactionlab.org/south-asia
Media Contact, J-PAL South Asia: Saptarishi Dutta | [email protected]