Union Minister of Jal Shakti to interact with Ministers from States/ UTs on Implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission

National Jal Jeevan Mission, Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti is organizing a virtual conference with ministers in-charge of the rural water supply of all States/UTs on November 3, 2020, through video conference.  

It will be chaired by Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. The planning and implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission in States/ UTs will be discussed with special emphasis on a 100-day campaign launched to provide piped water supply in Anganwadi centres, ashram shalas and schools in rural areas.

The National Mission is regularly reviewing the progress of implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission in States/ UTs to realize the goals of the mission in a time-bound manner. In this endeavour, the virtual conference has been organized to discuss various issues with ministers in charge of the rural water supply of States/UTs to implement Jal Jeevan Mission with speed, scale and skill. 

The goal of Jal Jeevan Mission is to ensure that every household has assured drinking water supply inadequate quantity of prescribed quality on a long-term basis at affordable service delivery charges leading to improvement in the living standard of a rural community, particularly women & children. The prime objective of the mission is to ensure water supply to every home, the functionality of taps on a long-term basis, decentralized operation & management & water testing facilities for the general public.

The mission gives the highest priority to water quality. For this, the States/ UTs are urged to speed up the accreditation of the water testing laboratories. Currently, there are 2,233 government-owned water quality testing labs in States/ UTs. 

In most states/ UTs, these labs only test water samples are not open to the general public. In some States/ UTs, these labs are open to the public but charges for testing are so high that no common family can take a water sample and get it tested. The mission encourages these labs are opened to the public for testing of their water samples on nominal charge as well as GP/ VWSC/ Paani Samiti are trained to test the water using kits, and data is uploaded concurrently, it will help in ensuring potability of water. Thus, by integrating these laboratories and making them open to the general public will help in ascertaining potability of water supplied through taps. It will help in improving public health in general and women and children in particular.

Further, a ‘100-day’ campaign has been launched on October 2, 2020, to make provision for assured piped water supply in schools, Anganwadi centres and ashram shalas (residential schools in tribal areas), which will help in ensuring clean water to our children for their better health and holistic development. 

The objective of the virtual conference is to discuss all these issues at length to give the desired pace and sustain the momentum for implementation of the life-changing mission to ensure every rural home gets safe water in their homes regularly and on a long-term basis.

During the launch of this mission in August 2019, 3.23 Crore (17%) households out of 18.93 Crore rural households had tap water connections. Remaining 15.70 Crore i.e. 83 per cent of rural households are to be provided with tap water connections by 2024. To achieve the goal of the mission, about 85,000 tap connections need to be provided daily. During these difficult times, about 1 lakh connections provided per day. 

Despite COVID-19 being a setback in implementation, the States/ UTs are making all-out efforts to achieve this huge target. The implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) – ‘Har Ghar Jal’ to provide assured potable piped water supply to every rural home is in full swing.

The objective of the ambitious mission is universal coverage i.e. every family in every habitation/ village is to get tap water connection and ‘no one is left behind’. The provision of household tap connection in rural areas will help in removing ‘drudgery’ of women, especially women and girls as fetching water is their responsibility. It will also improve the ‘ease of living’ for people living in rural areas.

While firming up an action plan to accomplish the goal of the mission, States/ UTs have finalized the saturation plan as below: (FHTC: Functional Household Tap Connection): 

• 100% FHTCs in 2020:Goa (Target achieved)

• 100% FHTCs in 2021:A&N Islands, Bihar, Puducherry, Telangana

• 100% FHTCs in 2022:Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Punjab, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh

• 100% FHTCs in 2023:Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Tripura

• 100% FHTCs in 2024:Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, West Bengal.

The soul of the programme is community participation starting from the planning of the water supply scheme in the village to its operation and maintenance. Every village is taken up as a unit and Village Action Plan (VAP) for five years is being prepared for each village by mobilization and participation of the local community with mandatory components viz. strengthening of local drinking water sources; in-village water supply infrastructure to provide tap water connections; greywater treatment and reuse; and operation & maintenance of water supply systems so as every family gets assured supply of potable water.

‘Building Partnerships, Changing Lives’ is the motto of Jal Jeevan Mission. Following the clarion call of Prime Minister ‘to make water everyone’s business’, the mission strives to build partnerships and work together with such institutions/ individuals to achieve drinking water security for all. 

Source: PIB