G. P. Singh
Senior Technical Director
National Informatics Centre
Lucknow
India

Biography
Having MSc (Maths), MCA and MBA At present working as Senior Technical Director in the National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Govt of India. Having more than 24 years of experience in executing cost effective ICT enabled projects in the various departments of State and Central Govt. Web based GIS framework http://gis.up.nic.in "SRISHTI" to make use of GIS in day to day decision making.

Abstract
Location Mapping of Drinking Water Sources in UP, India-Step Towards Safe Water to the Masses

Rural India has more than 700 million people residing in about 1.42 million habitations spread over 15 diverse ecological regions. Meeting the drinking water needs of such a large population can be a daunting task. The health burden of poor water quality is enormous. It is estimated that around 37.7 million Indians are affected by waterborne diseases annually, 1.5 million children are estimated to die of diarrhoea alone and 73 million working days are lost due to waterborne diseases each year. The problem of chemical contamination is also prevalent. The major chemical parameters of concern are Fluoride and Arsenic. Iron is also emerging as a major problem with many habitations showing excess iron in the water samples. Therefore, Government of India is providing fund to the State for establishing safe drinking water sources by way of piped water supply schemes, hand pumps and tube wells. There are around 2.5 million hand pumps available in UP spread over 265K habitations in 75 Districts of the State. Non-uniformity in level of awareness, socio-economic development, education, poverty, practices and rituals and water availability add to the complexity of the task for providing safe drinking water to the masses. It is very difficult to monitor water quality of all the sources due to vast area of the State and a large number of water sources. Therefore, a water quality survey is being carried out by the State Government. for water quality parameters such as pH, Arsenic (mg/lit), Chloride, Iron, Fluoride, Nitrate, Total Hardness, Residual Chlorine in Piped water Supply, Bacteriological etc. Location in terms of Lat/Long along with photograph is also captured for mapping of the sources. A system has been developed for monitoring of water quality of sources so that safe water may be provided to the masses in the State.