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New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government’s flagship drinking water programme, Jal Jeevan Mission, has crossed a key milestone, reaching three-fourths of all rural households it intends to cover by 2024-end. Progress of the scheme, however, continues to be skewed across states, official data show.
As on date, nearly 145 million rural households, or 75% of the total, have been fitted with a functional tap water under the scheme. So far, 11 states and Union territories have achieved their target of 100% coverage ahead of the year-end deadline (Goa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Gujarat, Haryana, Telangana, Puducherry, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram).
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the programme in August 2019, only one-sixth of India’s roughly 192 million households across 600,000 villages had a functional water tap.
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Getting to a water source is a long haul in most of rural India. According to a 2013 National Sample Survey Organisation survey, in Jharkhand, it took women 40 minutes one way, without considering the waiting time. In Bihar, it was 33 minutes and in Uttar Pradesh, 38 minutes. The water mission aims to change this drudgery.
Overall, the pace of implementation appears robust. A calculation by the Jal Shakti ministry showed that, on average, more than 85000 rural families are being covered each day.
Yet, states where progress has been significantly behind the national average include Madhya Pradesh (60.94%), Kerala (52.37%), Jharkhand (51.38%), Rajasthan (47.15%) and West Bengal (45.76), according to latest data on the mission’s dashboard.
The government has stepped up monitoring and is holding special reviews with local authorities in laggard states, an official said, requesting anonymity.
Also Read: Jal Jeevan Mission hits hurdles in Kerala: Govt
The Jal Jeevan Mission is an undertaking that requires laying pipelines, building village tanks and connecting them to a sustainable water source, some of which are located in the country’s remotest corners, posing significant engineering challenges.
A UN agency specialising in delivering critical projects, UNOPS, and Denmark’s government have entered into a partnership to provide technical support to the mission in 11 most water-scarce districts of the country, straddling the Bundelkhand and Vindhya regions of Uttar Pradesh, the official said.
Under the mission, 30% weightage is assigned for difficult terrains and 10% weightage is assigned for population residing in SC/ ST dominated areas while allocating the funds to prioritize coverage in these areas.
“To support long-term sustainability, local communities are mobilised with knowledge and skills to take ownership of the water connections in their villages,” the official said.
In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on February 8 this year, minister of state for Jal Shakti, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, had said uneven terrain, scattered habitations, contaminants in ground water and lack of capacity of local village communities to manage and operate water-supply infrastructure were some of the hurdles being faced by some states.
Another key reason for slow progress in some states is a delay in the release of states’ share towards implementing the scheme, he stated.
“The crux of the matter is the issue of sustainability. While connecting households with a water source is the easier part, past experience has shown that maintaining sustainability of the source is critical for longer-term availability of water,” said Ram Moria of Samaj Pragati Sahayog, a water conservation NGO based in Devas, MP.
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