Jal Jeevan Mission promotes research and development

 Jal Jeevan Mission is being implemented in partnership with States, to enable every household in villages to have functional household tap connection by 2024. This Mission aims at ensuring potable water supply in adequate quantity (@ the rate of 55 litres per person per day) and of prescribed quality to every rural household on regular and long-term basis.

On completion of 1st year of Jal Jeevan Mission, announced by the Prime Minister in his Independence Day address to the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort on 15th August, 2020; in the whole country, 2 Crore households have been provided tap water connection in this period. More than 1 lakh families are given tap water connections daily.

The rural drinking water supply is a complex subject with various social, environmental and technical challenges like geo-genic and anthropogenic water quality issues, long-term portable water supply in harsh edaphoclimatic conditions and disaster-prone areas, measurement and monitoring of water service delivery, behaviour change management, cost-effective grey-water treatment and reuse etc. Thus, given the challenges and the knowledge gaps being faced while implementing the Jal Jeevan Mission with speed and scale along with the future of rural water security, there is a pressing need for significant research and innovation in the water supply sector.

Now, more than ever, National Jal Jeevan Mission will be supporting, promoting and cultivating research and innovation to solve the issue faced by water supply sector in rural areas. National Jal Jeevan Mission is inviting proposals from young innovators, researchers, academia, entrepreneurs, start-ups working in this sector to provide cost-effective solutions and fill knowledge gaps.  Further, the Department/ National Mission/ SWSM will conduct action research and concurrent evaluation studies for adopting evidence-based technical intervention to manage rural water supply efficiently, effectively and economically.  These R&D projects under Jal Jeevan Mission will facilitate in building partnership with scientists and R&D institutions, innovators, entrepreneurs and create useful knowledge that will help in in addressing various challenges in the drinking water sector so as to improve the lives of people.

The R&D guidelines is available on the Departmental portal i.e. https://jalshakti-ddws.gov.in/. All interested individual/ agencies/ institutions may use this opportunity and apply their proposals.