Jal Jeevan Mission: Around 13 crore rural households are now equipped with tap water connections

By: Yash Gupte

As on September 1, 2023, around 13,01,38,572 (67.67 percent) rural households have been provided with tap water connections. According to the Ministry of Jal Shakti, the total number of rural households in India is 19,23,15,523.

The Jal Jeevan Mission aims to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in rural India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the people on number of tap water connections touching 13 crore mark from 3 crore in just 4 years. As on September 1, 2023, around 13,01,38,572 (67.67 percent) rural households have been provided with tap water connections. According to the Ministry of Jal Shakti, the total number of rural households in India is 19,23,15,523.

Launched in 2019, the Jal Jeevan Mission is one of the major flagship programs of the Modi government. It aims to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in rural India. The programme also aims to implement source sustainability measures as mandatory elements, such as recharge and reuse through grey water management, water conservation, rain water harvesting. Before 2019, out of the then total 18.93 crore rural households, only 3.23 crore (17 percent) households had access to tap water connection. The remaining 15.70 crore families were dependent on river, well, pond, stand post and spring for their daily water needs. By the end of FY20, only 21.3 percent of rural households had access to a water pipeline. During the next financial year, it increased to 37.99 percent.

Under the JJM, the states and UTs have been advised to undertake testing of water quality on a periodic basis i.e. once in year for chemical and physical parameters, and twice in a year for bacteriological parameters and take remedial action wherever necessary, to ensure that the water supplied to households is of prescribed quality. As of September 6, 2023, there are 2,099 active laboratories for testing the quality of water. Till date around 54,70,081 samples have been tested in these laboratories. Out of the total tested samples, 6,32,861 were found contaminated. Around 22,87,851 women have been trained for testing water samples using the Field Testing Kits (FTK). About 4,85,443 villages have tested water samples using FTKs. Kerala reported the maximum number of contaminated water samples at 1,02,769.

According to the latest figures released by the ministry, 145 districts, 1,479 blocks, 89,684 Gram Panchayat and 1,86,877 villages have been provided with drinking water through taps. Goa, Telangana, Gujarat, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Pondicherry and Haryana have already achieved 100 percent household connections. Also, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh have been added to the list of states with 100 percent tap water connections.

Source: Ministry of JalShakti

The north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Sikkim have a coverage of more than 75 percent.

West Bengal has the lowest coverage at 37.63 percent, followed by Jharkhand at 41.28 percent and Rajasthan (43.36 percent). Schools in 16 states and UTs have 98-100 percent tap water connections.

Source: Outlay on Major Schemes, Union Budget Documents 2023-24

At the same time, the allocation towards this project has increased over the years. While ₹10,998 crore was allocated in 2020-21, it rose to ₹45,011 crore in 2021-22 and ₹60,000 crore in 2022-23 and it further increased to ₹70,000 crore in 2023-24.

Source: Ministry of Jal Shakti

The Jal Jeevan Mission has come a long way from receiving Rs 10,000.66 crore in 2019-20 to Rs 55,000 crore in 2022-23. The biggest jump in allocation of funds for the scheme by the central government was witnessed in the year 2021-22 as the allocation went up from Rs 11,000 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 45,011 in 2021-22. The data shows that there has been under utilisation of funds by the states for the successful implementation of the scheme. For example, in the financial year 2021-22, Rs 45,011 crore were allocated by the central government for the Jal Jeevan Mission but of these total funds, only Rs 40,009.77 crore were drawn by different states across the country. But the more surprising part here is that out of the withdrawn funds worth Rs 40,009.77 crore only Rs 25,524.36 crore were utilised by the states.

This clearly points out that there is an underutilisation of funds by the states and this is one of the reasons that most of the states are far from attaining the status of ‘Har Ghar Jal.’ If the underutilisation of funds continue, then it is difficult for the central government to achieve its target of providing tap water connections to all the rural households by 2024. The central government and state governments must work together and overcome bureaucratic difficulties and other issues and ensure successful implementation of the scheme, thus keeping up the spirit of cooperative federalism.

In the year 2022-23, the highest funds allocated by the central government have been drawn by Uttar Pradesh. The state has drawn Rs 9,497 crore out of the total Rs 55,000 crore. But in spite of drawing the highest funds under the scheme, Uttar Pradesh remains one of the poorest performing states with only 59.97 percent of the rural households having tap water connections. Data shows that the Jal Jeevan Mission has come a long way from just 16.83 percent rural households having tap water connections in 2019 to 67.67 percent equipped with tap water connections in 2023.