WSS Department has evolved a system for very frequent checking of Water Quality at Rural Water Supply Schemes, where Department officials including Junior Engineers, Sub Divisional Engineers and Executive Engineers are required to test a specific number of water samples. Target has been fixed for each individual engineer to get these tests done on monthly basis. If the water quality of any sample is not up to the mark, remedial steps are taken without any loss of time. As a result:

a) 4450 water samples are checked every month to monitor disinfection (through chlorination / silver ionization) of drinking water from Rural Water Supply Schemes.

b) 3000 water samples are collected every month for physical & chemical analysis.

c) Similarly around 2140 water samples are collected every month to check indicative bacteriological contamination through H2S Kits. As and when there is any indication of pollution through this test, samples are immediately collected for bacteriological analysis.

WSS Department held Workshops to train the village personnel / PRI person under Govt. of India Water Quality Surveillance Programme. Each Workshop was held for a cluster of 5 villages with participation of five persons / PRI members from each village. As a result all villages stand covered with the training programme.

Each village has been provided with a water testing kit which is capable of testing 100 water samples for 12 parameters i.e. pH, Alkalinity, Hardness, Chloride, TDS, Fluoride, Iron, Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, Phosphate & Residual Chlorine. In addition, field test H2S Kits have also been distributed to different villages for testing water of different sources for bacteriological contamination.

Department has started a Mobile Water Testing Laboratory to help the Department in effective surveillance of drinking water quality in the rural areas of the State. This lab is capable of conducting two physical tests (Turbidity, PH), seven basic chemical tests (Fluoride, Iron, Residual Chlorine, Nitrate, Sulphate, TDS and Alkalinity), four heavy metals (Cadmium, Lead, Arsenic and Manganese) and Bacteriological examination of water samples. Mobile lab helps in quickly identifying the water quality problem on the spot at site. This lab is also used to counter check the quality of water from different water supply schemes which are being checked regularly by the departmental officers.

At present there is a central water testing laboratory at Patiala in addition to district level laboratories at Bathinda, Ferozerpur, Amritsar. In order to provide testing facilities nearest to the water supply schemes, water testing laboratories have been set up at all the 20 district headquarters as well as at seven other divisional head quarters i.e. Pathankot, Rajpura, Anandpur Sahib, Abohar, Fazilka, Malout & Batala. These labs check quality of water according to specifications for potable water as per Bureau of Indian Standards: BIS-10500-1991.