Water quality has become an important issue for policy makers in the Government both at the Centre and the State level. The issue is important from health as well as environmental point of view. Even though the impact of poor water quality on the health of public may be slow and continuous, the visible problems are seen only in some cases. However, the scenario becomes alarming once the opportunity cost of human resources who drink quality affected water. Till recently, importance was given to the quantitative aspects of drinking water in terms of L.P.C.D. Now there is a felt need to frame policy, standards and guidelines in the drinking water sector for water quality. This paper attempts to analyse the current water quality scenario in Maharashtra state in India. Under the ongoing 1400 crore, World Bank funded ‘Jalswarajya‘ project in Maharashtra, a very detailed study was conducted across the districts for 5 chemical parameters viz. Nitrate, Fluoride, Iron, Chloride and TDS. Both Government and private agencies were used in this massive exercise. About 2,78,939 water sources were sampled and checked, covering 35049 villages. All the Details were put in simple GIS Software. Obtained results indicate that 9.73% of the tested sources are quality affected. 885 villages covering 2439 sources are 100% quality affected. These villages are further classified into 4 groups in percentage categories viz. 1–49, 50–74, 75–99 & 100 as per the number of sources affected. This paper will cover the information base available before the survey was taken up, Methodology, adopted, Sampling methods, Institutes and agencies involved, results obtained, water quality scenario across Maharashtra up to Source level detailing, and the deviations from the WHO norms. Methods to prioritize the quality issues using opportunity cost methods while tackling the issue at a state Government level is also discussed. While addressing issues like awareness creation and capacity building of local communities, this paper will also discuss how to mobilize the communities when the water quality problems are not very threatening and intangible as felt by the local communities and the policy frame work useful for the State Governments under such scenario. This paper will also outline the water quality framework in progress under the Water Quality project for the state of Maharashtra to be funded by the World Bank.
