New Delhi: While most of the states and Union Territories have seen successful implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Kerala are lagging far behind in providing functional tap water supply to the rural households under the ambitious project of the central government.
The Mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2019, with an aim to provide functional household tap connection to every rural household by 2024.
So far, the Jal Shakti Ministry has been successful in providing tap water connections to more than 15.45 crore (79.79 percent) rural households out of 19.36 crore rural households. Initially, only 3.23 crore (17 percent) rural households had tap water connections.
Slow Progress In Five States
According to latest government data, five major states have achieved less than 70 percent tap water connection in rural households. Madhya Pradesh accounts for 67.28 percent tap connections, Rajasthan 55.36 percent, West Bengal 54.48 percent, Jharkhand 54.66 percent, while Kerala is at bottom with 54.25 percent tap water supply to rural households.
"Long gestation period of multi-village schemes, presence of contaminants in groundwater, lack of dependable groundwater sources in drought-prone and desert areas, terrain challenges in hilly and forest areas, nationwide Covid-19 pandemic, consequent lockdown, and other factors substantially affected the pace of implementation of JJM in these States," the Ministry informed a parliamentary panel.
States/UTs With 100% Implementation
States and Union Territories like Haryana, Gujarat, Telangana, Goa, Puducherry, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have achieved 100 percent coverage of all the rural households with functional tap water connections.
On the other hand, Bihar, Ladakh and Uttarakhand have been successful in providing functional tap water supply in more than 95 percent households.
Steps Taken To Improve Position
According to the Jal Shakti Ministry, several steps have been taken to expedite the works in majority of the states. Apart from joint discussion and finalisation of annual action plan (AAP) of states and UTs, regular review of implementation, organising workshops, conferences, webinars for capacity building and knowledge sharing, field visits by multi-disciplinary team to provide technical support, regular review meetings at highest level for executing agencies and Gram Panchayat and other stakeholders and provision for professional manpower augmentation at different levels including project management units, is being ensured.
"The Department has already nominated state and UT-wise area officers who are addressing the day-to-day issues being faced by the respective states. Further, the Department has also nominated a nodal Officer for coordinating with Central nodal Ministries, Departments, agencies to facilitate the states in obtaining statutory and other clearances. In addition to this, State Programme Management Units (SPMUs) and District Programme Management Units (DPMUs) have been set up to bridge the gap in the availability of technical skill sets and of HR for programme management, a network of Civil Society Organizations working in the water sector, the Rural WASH Partner Forum, has also been set up to extend support to states for time-bound implementation of the initiative," the Ministry said.
"States are equal partners in successful implementation of the scheme. Specific problems in each of the states which are lagging behind, need to be examined. The Committee, therefore, recommended the Department to look into the state-specific problems and devise suitable measures to fast track implementation of JJM to realise the objectives at the earliest," the Ministry added.
Goof-Up In Implementation Process
Recently, the Parliamentary Committee on Water Resources chaired by Parbatbhai Savabhai Patel noted that in some states like Maharashtra, where actual implementation started in 2021, surveys were conducted hastily without actually visiting households. Without any physical survey, information was uploaded through google images, which has resulted in exclusion of many households in the villages, leading to faulty reporting of data on Integrated Management Information System (IMIS), Savabhai Patel said.
Further, in many places, water supply schemes have been launched without proper assessment of the water supply source, causing practical difficulties in execution of piped supply of water. Similarly, though 87.46 percent of schools and 82.63 percent Anganwadi Centres are reported to have been provided with tap connections, actual availability of water through these taps needs physical verification, he cited.
While district nodal officers have been given the responsibility to feed district-level data, which is further approved by state nodal officers; at national level, National WASH Experts (NEW) have been appointed since August, 2022. However, the Water Resources panel believes that the scheme could be successfully implemented only when local officials are given the verification work.
"Local monitoring on a real-time basis and reporting of functional piped water infrastructure would be a great step in preventing not only inconsistency in factual information but also providing a genuine feedback for adoption of corrective measures," the committee stated.
Suggestions For The Ministry
The committee suggested that local-level officers may be designated for each district on the lines of area officers (designated for each state and UTs) to facilitate monitoring of work at the ground level and ensure actual reporting of works undertaken.
"In order to achieve the target of 100 percent coverage of village/rural households with regular assured water supply within the prescribed period, these practical issues in implementation, if sorted out, would certainly make Jal Jeevan Mission a fruitful mission," the committee observed.
Implementation Impact
The Jal Shakti Ministry estimated that if the Jal Jeevan Mission sees 100 percent implementation across all states and UTs, it will prevent around 1.36 lakh deaths every year among children under the age of five. However, authorities need to ensure that water delivered through JJM is free from microbiological contamination.
In 2019, at the inception of Jal Jeevan Mission, more than 50 percent of the population did not have access to safe drinking water. Although geogenic contaminants such as arsenic, fluoride, and nitrate are widespread in certain regions of India, the most ubiquitous type of contamination is microbial. Diarrhea is the most common responsible disease for mortality among children under five in the country.
Read More
