New Milestone: 10 Crore Rural Households Get Drinking Water Through Taps In India

New Delhi: The ambitious Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) has achieved a new milestone by providing 10 crore rural households in the country with safe and clean drinking water through taps.

Three years ago, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Jal Jeevan Mission, only 3.23 crore, around 16.90 per cent of the households in villages had access to piped water connection. The country achieved the landmark of 10 crore Functional Household Tap Connection on August 19, it was officially stated.

So far, three states – Goa, Telangana and Haryana – and 3 Union Territories of Puducherry, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Andaman and Nicobar Islands have reported 100 per cent coverage, while Punjab has recorded 99.93 per cent coverage.

They were followed by Gujarat at 97.03 per cent, Bihar at 95.51 per cent and Himachal Pradesh at 94.88 per cent. These states are also poised to achieve saturation shortly, an official release said.

On August 17, Goa and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu (D&NH and D&D) became the first ‘Har Ghar Jal’ certified state and UT in the country respectively, where people in all villages confirmed availability of adequate, safe and regular supply of water for all households in their villages, through Gram Sabhas.

The objective of the Mission is to provide every rural household with drinking water in adequate quantity of prescribed quality on regular and long-term basis. Despite various disruptions and challenges like CoVID-19 pandemic, States and UTs are working relentlessly overcoming the challenges like harsh weather conditions, remoteness, tough terrains, hills and forest to ensure tap water in every rural home. On many occasions the pipes and other equipment are transported on helicopters, boats, camels, elephants and horses.

The relentless efforts of the Union and State governments have also resulted in ensuring provision of tap water supply in 8.67 lakh (84.35%) schools and 8.96 lakh (80.34%) anganwadi centres in the country, it said.

In the 117 aspirational districts of our country, at the time of launch of the Mission, only 24.32 lakh (7.57%) household had access to tap water which has now increased to 1.54 Crore (48.00%). Three Aspirational districts from Telangana (Komaram Bheem Asifabad, Jayashankar Bhupalpalli and Bhadrabri Kothagudem) and 1 district each in Punjab (Moga), Haryana (Mewat) and Himachal Pradesh (Chamba) have reported 100% tap water coverage, it said.

JJM has brought huge socio-economic benefits to the rural population. Regular tap water supply relieves people, especially women and young girls, from carrying heavy bucket loads of water to meet their daily household needs thereby reducing age-old drudgery. The time so saved can be used for income generation activities, learning new skills and supporting children’s education.

In order to achieve long term sustainability of the schemes, community participation has from the very beginning been at the heart of planning, implementation, operations and maintenance of Rural Piped Water Supply schemes. A total of 5.08 lakh Village Water & Sanitation Committees (VWSC)/ Pani Samitis have been constituted in the country.

Water Quality under this mission is a very important aspect. A total of 2,070 water testing laboratories have been developed, strengthened and empaneled in the country during the Mission period.  As on date, more than 64 lakh water quality tests have been conducted in 4.51 lakh villages through water testing laboratories. Water quality testing labs of States/ UTs are now open for the public for testing water samples at nominal rates.  Till now, 10.8 lakh rural women have also been trained to use Field Testing Kits (FTKs).