After touching the milestone of providing tap water supply to more than 9 Crore homes on 16th February, 2022, Jal Jeevan Mission achieved another milestone of providing tap water to every home of 100 districts in the country.
.Chamba, an Aspirational District of Himachal Pradesh has become the 100th ‘Har Ghar Jal’ District. Chamba is the fifth aspirational district to become ‘Har Ghar Jal’. Other four Har Ghar Jal Aspirational districts are: Bhadradri Kothgudem, Jayashankar Bhupalpalli, Komram Bheem Asifabad (all in Telangana) and Mewat in Haryana.
To translate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of providing clean tap water to every home in the country by 2024, in a short span of two and half years and despite COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown disruptions, Jal Jeevan Mission, has provided tap water supply to more than 5.78 Crore rural households.
As a result, today 100 districts in the country are enjoying benefits of clean tap water supply and Jal Jeevan Mission is on track to fulfill the Government’s resolve to provide tap water supply to every rural household by 2024.
At the announcement of the Mission on 15th August 2019, out of 19.27 Crore households only 3.23 Crore (17%) households in India had tap water connections. Following the principle of Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas’, in this short period, 100 districts, 1,138 blocks, 66,328 Gram Panchayats and 1,36,803 villages have become ‘Har Ghar Jal’.
In Goa, Haryana, Telangana, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Puducherry, Dadar & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, every rural household has tap water supply. Many more States like Punjab (99%), Himachal Pradesh (92.5%), Gujarat (92%) and Bihar (90%) are on the verge of becoming ‘Har Ghar Jal’ in 2022.
To achieve the mammoth task of providing tap water supply to every rural household in a span of five years, Rs 3.60 lakh Crore has been allocated. Rs. 60,000 Crore has been allocated to ‘Har Ghar Jal’ in Union Budget 2022-23 to provide tap water to 3.8 Crore households.
In addition to above, in 2021-22, Rs 26,940 Crore have been allocated to States as 15th Finance Commission tied grant for water & sanitation to Rural Local Bodies/ PRIs. There is an assured funding of Rs 1,42,084 Crore for the next five years i.e. up to 2025-26. This huge investment in rural areas across the country, is accelerating economic activities and boosting rural economy, as well as creating employment opportunities in villages.
In a paradigm shift from earlier water supply programmes, Jal Jeevan Mission focuses on water service delivery and not just building water supply infrastructure. The motto of the Jal Jeevan Mission is ‘no one is left out’, thus ensuring every household irrespective of its socio-economic status, gets tap water supply.
Jal Jeevan Mission strives for the freedom of mothers and sisters from centuries old drudgery of fetching water for household, and improving their health, education and socio- economic condition. The Mission is bringing ‘ease of living and adding pride and dignity to rural families.
