Union Government has initiated the process to prepare a ‘Strategic Plan’ for rural Drinking water and rural Sanitation for the remaining two years of current Five Year Plan and the next two Five Year Plans i.e. up to 2022. <br/><br/>The Department of Drinking Water Supply (DDWS), Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) in collaboration with National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), Hyderabad on Friday organized its first regional workshop at Chandigarh for Northern States, Punjab, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. <br/><br/>Aim of this workshop was to discuss in detail the aspirations, goals, objectives, strategy and implementation for ensuring safe drinking water and total sanitation facility for each household in rural areas by 2022.<br/><br/>Inaugurating the workshop, Mrs. Rajwant Sandhu, Secretary, Department of Drinking Water Supply (DDWS), Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), informed that the Union government was committed to ensure all rural households an access to safe drinking water besides having total sanitation facilities at the earliest and described the proposed Strategic Plan as a step towards that direction.<br/><br/>She expressed confidence that all the stakeholders would make concerted efforts to achieve this goal by 2022. More than 100 delegates participated in workshop representing the State level Principal Secretaries of Rural Water Supply and Rural Development, apart from the State level Co-coordinators.