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Some large states need to ramp up Jal Jeevan Mission, data show
Haryana is the latest state to achieve the target under Jal Jeevan Mission, designed to connect rural households with a functional tap water connection, ahead of its 2024 deadline. Uttar Pradesh has covered 12.74% of its 26.4 million rural households
NEW DELHI: A little over 83 million rural households, or 43% of the country’s 192 million rural households, now have access to piped drinking water connections under the flagship Jal Jeevan Mission but some large states with poor health outcomes have been slow to expand coverage, official data shows.
A marquee programme of the Modi government, the Jal Jeevan Mission, launched in 2019, aims to connect every rural household with a tapped water facility by 2024. Access to clean water is one of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs.
Six states and Union territories have come out on top with 100% coverage so far, the data show. These are Andamans and Nicobar Islands, Dadra And Nagar Haveli, Goa, Telangana, Puducherry and Haryana. Haryana is the latest state to achieve the target ahead of schedule.
Although the mission’s deadline is over two years away, some large states have been able to cover less than a quarter of total rural households, the data show.
Among them is Uttar Pradesh, which has covered 12.74% of its 26.4 million rural households so far. The state has drawn up a largescale engineering project to extend tap water connections in Bundelkhand, one of the driest parts of the country.
However, in terms of overall households covered, Uttar Pradesh has been the slowest in implementing the programme. Uttar Pradesh is key to improving India’s overall health parameters, especially among little children, because it is India’s most populous state.
The Bundelkhand leg of the Jal Jeevan Mission comprises 467 piped drinking water schemes under 32 projects. Of these, 43 are surface water-based schemes and 424 are ground water-based. “The UP government has completed about 80% work of water treatment plants in various districts of Bundelkhand including Jhansi and Mahoba. The construction work is almost complete in more than 50% of our plants,” said UP principal secretary Anurag Srivastava in a text message.
Bihar, a peer state, however, has been speedily able to expand coverage, currently at 88.23% of ts 17.2 million households.
Rajasthan, among the laggards, has been able to reach 20.91% of its 10.1 million rural families. It falls among a handful of states and UTs where coverage has been less than 25%, including Assam (22%), Ladakh (16.62%), Jharkhand (15.16%), West Bengal (13.48%) and Chhattisgarh 13.23%).
These states also have some of the poorest health outcomes in the country, according to HT’s analysis.
For instance, the six states with less than 25% coverage have shown a seven percentage point increase in the incidence of child malnourishment, data from Phase I of the National Family Health Survey 5 released last year shows, in comparison to the previous National Family Health Survey 4 (2015-16).
Some regions have achieved rapid progress. For instance, there has been a four-fold increase in the rate at which functional piped water is being provided to households in India’s 117 so-called aspirational districts, home to some of the poorest Indians -- overtaking the pace at which piped water is bring provided nationally under the Jal Jeevan Mission.
The data shows nearly a third of households in these districts have assured tap water supply. The coverage in these districts since the launch of the programme saw a 24% jump, a rate higher than the 22.7% increase in tap water connections provided countrywide under the scheme.
“The nature of topography and availability of a sustainable water source are key parameters that could be a reason why some states are ahead. I think it is better to go slow and build more sustainable sources than building unsustainable sources in a hurry,” said Aadil Aqueeb, a coordinator for India Coalition for Water Sustainability, a non-governmental outfit.
An official requesting anonymity said the Union government monitors progress closely jointly with states.
“Frequent meetings are held. Most states are working to deadlines, while six have achieved the target (100% coverage) well ahead of schedule,” the official said.
