MINUTES OF MEETING BETWEEN SAMARTHAN AND UNICEF AT PHE DURG ON

WATER QUALITY TESTING

Date: 7.03.2024

Place: PHE District Lab Durg

List of Attendees

1. Mrs Biraja Satpathy - UNICEF

2. Mr. Devidas Kisan Nimje- Samarthan
3. Mr. Manish Jha - Samarthan
4. Ms Ritu Verma- Samarthan
5. Mrs. Sakina Faiz- Samarthan
6. Mr. Dinesh Deshmukh- Samarthan
7. PHE officials

The following points were discussed on water quality monitoring and surveillance under Jal
Jeevan mission:

1. On NABL Accreditation for microbiological testing

2. On Loopholes in WQMIS Portal
3. On Acute Diarrheal disease (ADD) hotspots in Raipur & Durg district

The following tasks need to be completed by 7th April

On NABL Accreditation:

1. We have to go through guidelines for obtaining NABL Accreditation for microbiological

testing in state and district water testing labs on NABL’s official website.
2. There are certain requirements for obtaining NABL accreditation in different aspects
such as Human resources, Equipments, Infrastructure etc. So we have to identify those
requirements which are mandatory for obtaining NABL Accreditation.
3. After understanding these guidelines on NABL website, we have to check if the
guidelines given in Jal Jeevan Mission’s WQMS framework are in compliance with
guidelines given for NABL accreditation.
4. If anything is missing in WQMS then update it accordingly.
5. Prepare a list of different types of requirements which are mandatory for obtaining
NABL accreditation.
6. Update the lab assessment format for gap assessment of district and block level labs
focusing on mandatory requirements which should be marked in star for NABL
Accreditation for microbiological testing.

On Loopholes in WQMIS Portal:

1. As mentioned in WQMIS Portal, there must be a system for communicating the lab test
results to the concerned authorities/individuals etc by way of SMS or email or Whatsapp
messages.
2. We have to check whether any such system exists in WQMIS Portal by visiting in State
labs and district labs and understanding how they are uploading information and after
that does the information gets disseminated to the concerned authority (Sarpanch of
Gram Panchayat etc) or individual in case of private testing.
3. If there is no system, then we have to discuss what alternative methods can be used for
disseminating information.

On Acute Diarrheal Disease Hotspots in Raipur and Durg district:

1. First of all, we have to identify those places in Raipur and Durg districts where there
have been outbreak of acute diarrheal diseases since last three years as ADD Hotspots.
2. For this we have to go through local newspapers and also visit hospitals from where we
can obtain information about those regions where such outbreaks have been reported.
3. We can also obtain information about ADD outbreak from District Epidemiologist under
Integrated Disease surveillance program.
4. Conduct sanitary inspection and survey of areas identified as ADD hotspots and identify
the causes of this outbreak.
5. Also visit the local authorities, in charge etc of these areas and conduct campaigns for
raising awareness on safe practices for drinking water.
6. Sensitize the local people affected due to ADD outbreak on topics such as boiling water
before drinking, washing hands with soap/handwash after defecating etc.