ministry of drinking water and sanitation ministry of drinking water and sanitation the ministry of drinking water and sanitation was a ministry of the government of india formed in 2011. from may 2019, the ministry has been merged with the ministry of jal shakti. ministry of drinking water and sanitationemblem of indiaagency overviewformed2011dissolvedmay 2019jurisdictiongovernment of indiawebsitewww.mdws.gov.in politics of india federal government constitution of india law human rights indian penal code law enforcement legislatureparliament of india lok sabha speaker om birla (bjp) house leader narendra modi (bjp) opposition leader vacant rajya sabha chairman jagdeep dhankhar (bjp) house leader piyush goyal (bjp) opposition leader vacant executive president of india droupadi murmu (bjp) vice president of india jagdeep dhankhar (bjp) prime minister of india narendra modi (bjp) union council of ministers cabinet secretary judiciary supreme court of india chief justice dhananjaya y. chandrachud justices (list) district courts other tribunals elections general elections 2009 2014 2019 2024 state elections 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 political partiesnational coalitions national democratic alliance (nda) united progressive alliance (upa) national parties state parties federalism state government governors legislatures (list) high courts local government india portal other countries in 1999, the department of drinking water supply (ddws) was formed under ministry of rural development, for focused attention on drinking water and sanitation. later it was renamed as department of drinking water and sanitation in 2010. in 2011, it was conferred the ministry status, keeping in view the extreme importance given to the sector by the united progressive alliance government. the ministry of drinking water and sanitation was the nodal department for the overall policy, planning, funding and coordination of programmes of drinking water and sanitation in the country. responsibilities the ministry was responsible for the implementation of swachh bharat abhiyan in rural india. it got 8 million toilets constructed surpassing the target of 6 million toilets for the year 2015–16. notable decisions the ministry has requested various governmental departments to avoid the usage of plastic bottles to provide drinking water during governmental meetings etc., and instead, to make arrangements for providing drinking water that do not result in the generation of plastic waste. ministers no name portrait tenure political party prime minister 1 gurudas kamat (independent charge) 12 july 2011 13 july 2011 1 day indian national congress manmohan singh 2 jairam ramesh 13 july 2011 28 october 2012 1 year, 107 days 3 bharatsinh solanki (independent charge) 28 october 2012 26 may 2014 1 year, 210 days 4 gopinath munde 26 may 2014 3 june 2014 8 days bharatiya janata party narendra modi 5 nitin gadkari 3 june 2014 9 november 2014 159 days 6 birender singh 9 november 2014 5 july 2016 1 year, 239 days 7 narendra singh tomar 5 july 2016 3 september 2017 1 year, 60 days 8 uma bharati 3 september 2017 30 may 2019 1 year, 269 days ministry merged with ministry of water resources, river development and ganga rejuvenation to form ministry of jal shakti