The Ministry of Jal Shakti said on Wednesday that one lakh villages and 50,000 Gram Panchayats have become ‘Har Ghar Jal’.
The Jal Jeevan Mission achieved a milestone in providing tap water supply to every household in one lakh villages across India, in a short period of 23 months.
At the launch of this ambitious programme, out of 18.94 crore rural households in the country, only 3.23 crore (17%) had tap water connections. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown disruptions, the Jal Jeevan Mission provided 4.49 crore tap water connections in 23 months and has also made 50,000 Gram Panchayats ‘Har Ghar Jal’ by providing tap water supply to every household in these panchayats.
Today tap water supply has reached 7.72 crore (40.77%) households. Goa, Telangana, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry have achieved 100% tap water supply in rural areas. Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas”, the motto of the Mission is that no one is left out and every household in a village is provided with tap water connection. At present, 71 districts, 824 blocks, 50,309 Gram Panchayats and 1,00,275 villages have achieved the target of ‘Har Ghar Jal’.
The Jal Jeevan Mission focuses on water service delivery rather than providing mere water supply infrastructure. Under the JJM, the aim is to ensure that every household irrespective of its socio-economic condition has a tap water supply.
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To achieve the goal of providing tap water to every rural household, Rs 3.60 lakh crore have been allocated by the government. In 2020-21 Rs 11,000 crore was allocated for the States/UTs.
Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, water-scarce areas, quality-affected villages, aspirational districts, SC/ST majority villages and Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojna (SAGY) villages are prioritized for providing tap water supply.
During the last 23 months, tap water supply has increased four-fold from 7% to 33% in 117 aspirational districts. Similarly, more than 97 lakh households have been provided with tap water supply in 61 districts affected by Japanese Encephalitis-Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (JE-IES). 696 SAGY villages and 29,063 SC/ST majority villages have become ‘Har Ghar Jal.’