897 water-quality tests fail at sub-divisional laboratories, none referred: CAG

Many villages without water-quality monitoring

Irfan Tramboo

SRINAGAR, Oct 1: As many as 897 water-quality tests failed at sub-divisional laboratories in J&K between 2019-20 and 2023-24, but none was referred to district or State laboratories for further analysis, despite Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) guidelines requiring contaminated samples to be escalated, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has found.

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The audit said the failure to refer the samples meant that contaminated water tests were not investigated at higher levels, undermining the prescribed water-quality monitoring mechanism under JJM.

The finding emerged from the CAG's performance audit of JJM covering four sampled districts, Anantnag, Kulgam, Doda and Kishtwar.

According to details, sub-divisional laboratories conducted 1,91,611 tests against a five-year target of 2,10,000, achieving 91 per cent of the target. Of these, 1,90,714 tests (99.53 per cent) passed, while 897 (0.47 per cent) failed.

Of the failed tests, 833 were recorded in Kashmir and 64 in Jammu. Kashmir laboratories conducted 85,519 tests, of which 84,686 passed and 833 failed. Jammu laboratories conducted 1,06,092 tests, with 1,06,028 passing and 64 failing.

The JJM guidelines require sub-divisional/block laboratories to test all water sources under their jurisdiction and immediately refer samples testing positive for contamination to district laboratories.

District laboratories are required to refer positively tested samples to the State laboratory.

The CAG specifically noted that the 897 failed tests were not referred to either the District Laboratory or the State Laboratory for further analysis.

At the district level, the four sampled districts had a five-year target of 60,000 tests, based on 3,000 tests annually per district. Against this, 55,946 tests (93 per cent) were conducted, with 55,436 passing and 510 (0.92 per cent) failing.

At the State-level water-testing laboratory, 4,441 tests were conducted between 2021-22 and 2023-24 and all were recorded as passed.

These included 13 tests in 2021-22, 3,043 in 2022-23 and 1,385 in 2023-24. However, no tests from the sampled districts were reported as having been conducted at the State laboratory, the audit said.

The CAG also found gaps in village-level water-quality surveillance through Field Test Kits (FTKs).

Of 1,249 revenue villages in the four sampled districts, testing had been conducted in only 921 villages (74 per cent), leaving 328 villages without FTK-based water-quality monitoring.

There were 859 FTKs available against 4,750 women trained to conduct water-quality tests. Anantnag had 95 FTKs and 1,485 trained women; Kulgam 20 and 1,030; Doda 594 and 1,485; and Kishtwar 150 and 750 respectively.

The audit said testing in Anantnag and Doda began in 2022-23, while FTKs were not distributed according to requirements in Kulgam and Kishtwar.

The department, in its August 2025 response, said the number of failed samples was very low and contamination was treatable.

It said remedial action had been taken and samples passed when retested, while adequate FTKs were being procured.

The audit also examined JJM's intended outcome of reducing waterborne diseases.

It found that sufficient and accurate district-level data linking disease occurrence to JJM-covered habitations was not maintained by the PHE Department, while complete data was also unavailable with the Health Department.

Available data showed waterborne disease cases in Kishtwar increased from 11,119 in 2019-20 to 11,640 in 2023-24, while Anantnag recorded an increase from 6,243 to 7,841. Kulgam recorded 2,295 cases in 2021-22 and 9,024 in 2023-24, while Doda recorded 134, 514 and 392 cases respectively from 2021-22 to 2023-24.

The CAG concluded that there was no significant decrease in waterborne diseases except in Doda and recommended strengthening water-quality monitoring and social-audit mechanisms.