Jal Jeevan Mission: States compete among themselves to outperform others; 7 States achieved more than 10 per cent of the target of 2020-21

Launched in August 2019, in 7 months of implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission in 2019-20, around 85 lakh rural households were provided with tap connections. Further, amidst COVID-19 pandemic, since Unlock-1, about 55 lakh tap connections have been provided so far in the year 2020-21. Thus, daily about 1 lakh households are being provided with tap connections.

As of today, 7 States viz. Bihar, Telangana, Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Mizoram have achieved more than 10 per cent of the target household tap connections they had fixed for themselves. States like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Odisha, and Manipur have shown good progress during the corresponding period. This shows the commitment of the States to provide the basic services to the people residing in rural areas as envisaged under the flagship programme, Jal Jeevan Mission, as well as the speed and scale with which the States are making efforts to provide tap connections.

Out of 18.93 crore rural households in the country, 4.60 crore (24.30 per cent) households are already provided tap connections. The objective is to cover remaining 14.33 crore households in a time-bound manner while ensuring the functionality of all tap connections. With this goal in mind, States/ UTs are providing tap connections at the rate of more than one lakh connections daily.

In 2020-21, a sum of Rs 23,500 crore (US$ 3.33 billion) has been allocated for the implementation of JJM. Further, 50 per cent of 15th Finance Commission grants to Rural Local Bodies, i.e. Rs 30,375 crore (US$ 4.31 billion) have also been earmarked for water supply and sanitation. 50 per cent of this amount has been released to the States already, which will help in better implementation, management, operation, and maintenance of drinking water supply systems in villages to ensure people get potable water on regular and long-term basis.

The Ministry of Jal Shakti has been implementing Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in partnership with States with an aim to provide potable water in adequate quantity of prescribed quality on regular and long-term basis through tap connections to every rural household in the country by 2024. All out efforts are being made by the National Mission under Ministry of Jal Shakti to handhold the States/ UTs for the implementation. The progress of the mission is being monitored on day-to-day basis.

Various States/ UTs have committed to achieve the goal of the Mission well before 2024. In 2021, Bihar, Goa, Puducherry and Telangana have planned for complete saturation; similarly in 2022, States/ UTs of Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Meghalaya, Punjab, Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh are planning for 100 per cent coverage. While Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura have planned for full saturation in 2023, States like Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and West Bengal have planned for 2024.

In line with the appeal of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to further improve ‘ease of living’ in rural areas by providing facilities like financial inclusion, houses, road, clean fuel, electricity and toilets, the Jal Jeevan Mission is providing drinking water in every rural household, which will certainly improve the lives of rural population especially women and girls and save them from drudgery as well as water-borne diseases.