Jal Jeevan Mission

Jal Jeevan Mission was launched in 2019 and comes under the Ministry of Jal Shakti.

The goal of the mission is to provide safe drinking water to all households in rural India by 2024 through individual household tap connections.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made the announcement about the Har Ghar Nal Se Jal initiative during her 2019–20 budget speech. Har Ghar Nal Se Jal is a key component of the Jal Jeevan Mission.

Matter of Concern

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India is currently dealing with one of its worst water problems. According to the NITI Aayog’s Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) 2018, twenty-one (21) Indian cities may experience Day Zero in the upcoming years.

The term “Day Zero” describes the day when a region is most likely to run out of its own drinking water. The most vulnerable cities include Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, and Delhi.

According to the reports, 84% of Indian rural households lack access to piped water, while 75% of rural families lack access to drinking water on-premise.

To provide all basic hygienic requirements, the World Health Organization prescribes 25 liters of water per person per day.

Aim of Jal Jeevan Mission

Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is planned to have Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) installed in every rural household, providing each household with 55 liters of water per person per day.

An important part of the Jal Jeevan Mission would be substantial information, education, and communication, focused on a community-based approach.

The program will also incorporate source sustainability measures, such as recharge and reuse through greywater management, water conservation, and rainwater harvesting.

Objectives of Jal Jeevan Mission

Jal Jeevan Mission has several objectives to achieve.

• To provide Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) to every rural household.
• To prioritize the provision of FHTCs in villages, drought-prone and desert areas, Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) villages, etc.
• To provide functional tap connection of drinking water to Schools, Anganwadi centers, Health & wellness centers, and community buildings.
• Monitoring of functionality of taps.
• To promote and ensure voluntary ownership among the local community.
• help maintain the water supply system’s sustainability.
• to raise awareness of the importance of clean drinking water, its many facets, and the involvement of stakeholders in a way that makes water everyone’s business.

Vision

Providing every rural household with an adequate quantity of potable drinking water supply.

The supply should be on a regular and long-term basis.

The long-time service must be at affordable service delivery charges leading to improvement in living standards of rural communities.

Goal of Jal Jeevan Mission

• Strategy to ensure potable water security on a long-term basis to every rural household and public institutions like Gram Panchayat, schools, Anganwadi, health and wellness centers, etc.
• States/ UTs to be responsible for the creation of water supply infrastructure so that every rural household has a Functional Tap Connection (FHTC) by 2024.
• Making Gram Panchayat and Rural communities capable enough to plan, implement, manage, own, maintain, and operate their own in-village water supply systems
• States and UTs should create strong institutions that put focus on financial sustainability and service delivery.
• In providing and mobilizing financial help to States and UTs for the fulfillment of the mission.

Fund Pattern of Jal Jeevan Mission:

The ratio of funds shared between the Center and the State for Himalayan (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh) and the North-Eastern States is 90:10; for UTs, it is 100:0; and for the rest of the states, it is 50:50.

Achievements so far

2019: According to data provided by DDWS, as of 31.03.2019, only 18.33% or just 3.27 crores out of the country’s total 17.87 crores of rural households have access to piped water.

2022: Thus, as of August 3, 2022, 9.93 Crore (51.9%) of the country’s 19.11 Crore rural households were reported to have access to a tap water supply.

• At the state level, Goa, Telangana, and Haryana have achieved 100% household tap water connections.
• The Union Territories of Puducherry, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, and the A&N Islands have all reported providing tap water connections to every family i.e., to 100% of rural households so far in this.

2024: As of August 12, 2024, Jal Jeevan Mission has successfully provided tap water connections to 11.82 crore additional rural households, bringing the total coverage to more than 15.07 crore households, which accounts for 77.98% of all rural households in India.

• 15.07 Crore (77.98 %) of rural households in the country have been provided with tap water connection.
• 188 districts, 1,838 blocks, 1,09,996 Gram Panchayats and 2,33,209 villages have been reported to achieve ‘Har Ghar Jal’ status.
• The Government of India accords priority to Japanese Encephalitis (JE)-Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) affected Districts to ensure potable tap water supply in all the households under the Jal Jeevan Mission. Over 2.35 Crore households (79.21 %)  in JE-AES water quality-affected regions are getting access to clean tap water.
• 11 States/UTs, which include, Goa, A &N Islands, Dadra Nagar Haveli & Daman Diu, Haryana, Telangana, Puducherry, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh have provided tap water connection to all rural households (100%) in the respective State/UT as on August 14, 2024.
• As of August 14, 2024,  9,27,421 schools and 9,63,955 Aanganwadi centres have tap water supply.

How does the Mission Work?

Every functioning tap connection under Jal Jeevan Mission must be connected to the Aadhar number of the household head to give targeted services and monitoring. Every asset produced by JJM will include a geo-tag. All infrastructures built per the JJM will be subject to inspections by states’ empanelled third-party agencies. To determine which funds should be made available to States and UTs depending on their performance, the GoI will carry out a functional assessment of the schemes.

Read: Jal Shakti Abhiyan

Article Written By: Priti Raj