As the country celebrates Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, marking 75 years of India’s independence, the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) has achieved a new milestone by providing 10 million rural households with safe and clean drinking water through taps. On 15 August 2019, when Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched Mission Jal Jeevan from the ramparts of the Red Fort, only 3.23 million (16.90%) households in villages had access to piped water. On August 19, 2022, the country reached the milestone of 10 million functional household tap connections.
As on 3 States (Goa, Telangana and Haryana) and 3 UTs (Puducherry, D&D and D&NH and A&N Islands) reported 100% coverage. Punjab at 99.93%, followed by Gujarat at 97.03%, Bihar at 95.51% and Himachal Pradesh at 94.88% are also set to reach saturation soon. On 7 August 2022, Goa and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu (D&NH and D&D) became the first Har Ghar Jal and UT certified state in the country where people in all villages confirmed the availability of adequate, safe and regular water supply for all households in their villages through Gram Sabhas.
The goal of the mission is to regularly and long-term supply each rural household with drinking water in an adequate quantity of the prescribed quality. Despite various disruptions and challenges like the CoVID-19 pandemic, States / UTs are working tirelessly to overcome challenges like harsh weather conditions, remoteness, difficult terrains, hills, forests etc. to ensure tap water in every rural home. On many occasions, pipes and other equipment are transported by helicopters, boats, camels, elephants and horses.
The unrelenting efforts of the Union and State Governments have also resulted in provision of tap water supply in 8.67 lakh (84.35%) schools and 8.96 lakh (80.34%) anganwadi centers in the country. In the 117 aspirational districts of our country, only 24.32 lakh (7.57%) households had access to piped water at the time the mission began, which has now increased to 1.54 million (48.00%). Three aspirational districts from Telangana (Komaram Bheem Asifabad, Jayashankar Bhupalpalli and Bhadrabri Kothagudem) and 1 district in Punjab (Moga), Haryana (Mewat) and Himachal Pradesh (Chamba) reported 100% piped water coverage.
JJM has brought enormous socio-economic benefits to the rural population. A regular supply of tap water relieves people, especially women and young girls, from carrying heavy buckets of water to meet their daily household needs, thereby reducing years of drudgery. The time thus saved can be used for income-generating activities, learning new skills and supporting children’s education.
To achieve long-term sustainability of the schemes, community participation has been at the heart of the planning, implementation, operation and maintenance of rural piped supply schemes from the outset. A total of 5.08 lakh Village Water & Sanitation Committees (VWSC) / Pani Samitis have been set up in the country. 4.78 lakh VAPs have also been prepared detailing plans for augmentation of drinking water sources, gray water treatment and reuse and regular operation and maintenance of village water supply systems.
Water quality is a very important aspect of this mission. A total of 2,070 water testing laboratories were built, strengthened and empaneled in the country during the mission period. To date, more than 64 million water quality tests have been conducted in 4.51 lakh villages through water testing laboratories. State/UT water quality testing laboratories are now open to the public for testing water samples at nominal rates. So far, 10.8 million rural women have also been trained to use Field Testing Kits (FTKs). More than 58 million water quality tests have been conducted by trained women in 1.7 million villages using FTK.
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