West Bengal has ordered drinking-water sampling and testing in all state schools, requiring engineers to issue water-quality certificates by October 31 under the state’s Swachh Evam Harit Vidyalaya Rating initiative.
The directive was issued by the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Directorate after a decision taken at the second Executive Committee meeting of Jal Jeevan Mission, Bengal, on September 23. It was communicated to PHE executive engineers through an order from the Chief Engineer (Planning and Water Quality Monitoring).
The engineers have been instructed to collect drinking-water samples from schools across the state and have them tested. Once the process is completed, water-quality certificates are to be issued for the schools. The order follows a directive from Paschim Banga Samagra Shiksha Mission under the school education department.
The exercise places the PHE Directorate at the centre of a state-wide verification process for drinking-water facilities in schools. The supplied report does not specify the number of schools covered, the testing parameters, the laboratories that will conduct the tests or the action required if a sample fails to meet the prescribed standard.
The order is linked to the Swachh Evam Harit Vidyalaya Rating initiative, which is being used in the state as the administrative framework for the school-level exercise. The move also connects school education administration with the public health engineering machinery responsible for water-quality monitoring.
Saugata Basu of the West Bengal Government School Teachers’ Association welcomed the directive, saying that, to his knowledge, the government’s decision to require water testing through a formal notification was happening for the first time. He also urged the government to undertake repair and renovation work in government schools, many of which he said were in poor condition.
The testing order therefore establishes a formal deadline and certification requirement, but the available information does not state how schools with unsafe or unavailable drinking water will be supported after testing. It also does not detail whether certificates will be renewed periodically or made available to parents and school authorities.
PHE executive engineers are expected to complete sampling and testing and issue the water-quality certificates by October 31. Further implementation details, including the test results and any remedial measures, will depend on the process carried out by the department.