Jal Jeevan Mission achieves 60% of its target, says govt

Of India’s total of 190.4 million rural households, 116 million now have a functioning water tap, an official statement said

The Jal Jeevan Mission, one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship programmes to connect every rural household in the country with a tap-water connection, has reached 60% of its countrywide target, adding 23.4 million households in the fiscal year ended 2022-23, an official statement said.

At the start of the Jal Jeevan Mission, a baseline survey showed that less than 17% or 32.3 million households had a tap connection.

Of India’s total of 190.4 million rural households, 116 million now have a functioning water tap, the statement said. “This is an outstanding achievement and will empower several lives. We are doing everything possible to increase this coverage at an even greater pace in the times to come,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet.

At the start of the mission, a baseline survey showed that less than 17% or 32.3 million households had a tap connection.

“The country crossed another milestone in the journey towards ‘Har Ghar Jal’ on 4th April 2023, with over 11.66 crore (60%) rural households provided with tap water supply in their homes,” the statement said.

As on date, Gujarat, Telangana, Goa, Haryana, Punjab and the Union territories of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Daman Diu & Dadra Nagar Haveli and Puducherry have achieved 100% coverage.

Under the mission, 2,078 water testing labs have been installed, of which 1,122 are accredited with National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories, according to data from the Jal Shakti ministry.

The Jal Jeevan Mission is one of the largest infrastructure-building programmes in the country, which involves installing source-to-household water tap connections.

The Jal Shakti ministry said the programme has created direct and indirect employment in rural areas. “A preliminary survey by IIM Bengaluru has assessed that about 1,47,55,980 person-year of employment can be created during the five-year period of implementation of JJM,” the release said, adding “this works out to be an average of 29,51,196 people employed in each year for the full year in the construction phase of the mission.”

Nearly 820 million people in 12 major river basins of the country face “high to extreme” water stress, according to Water Aid. Getting to a water source is a long haul in rural India. The piped water mission, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019, aims to change this drudgery.