Making every drop count: On the Jal Jeevan Mission

Making every drop count: On the Jal Jeevan Mission

Subject : Government schemes

Introduction–

• One of the most significant commitments of the Union government is to ensure piped water to every rural household by 2024 under the Jal Jeevan Mission, led by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
• Its stated aim is to ensure at least 55 litres per person per day of potable water to every rural household — which implies a mere connection does not suffice.

Current status of the scheme–

• The Government claims,10.2 crore rural households, or about 53% of the eligible population, now have tap water access, which is a 37-percentage point rise from 2019 when the scheme was announced.
• On average, households got water for three hours every day.

The Government commissions annual surveys to evaluate the success of the scheme-

• A recent audit, by a private agency, found that around 62% of rural households in India had fully functional tap water connections within their premises.
• A report of a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources in March, based on numbers provided by the nodal Jal Shakti Ministry, stated that 46% households had such fully functional tap water connections.
• It is important to note that for the purposes of the survey, only 3% of rural households were surveyed by the agency for the updated numbers and so the margin of error may be substantial and subject to the way the survey was designed.
• If the numbers are accurate, however, this represents an impressive rise in potable, tap water accessibility and suggests that the mission is well on its way to meeting its 2024 target.

Wide disparities in implementation–

• Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Goa and Puducherry reported more than 80% of households with fully functional connections while less than half the households in Rajasthan, Kerala, Manipur, Tripura, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Sikkim had such connections.
• About 75% of households received water all days of the week, and only 8% just once a week.
• On average, households got water for three hours every day.
• Moreover, the report mentions a problem of chlorine contamination.
• Though 93% of the water samples were reportedly free of bacteriological contamination, most of the anganwadi centres and schools had higher than the permissible range of residual chlorine.

Jal Jeevan Mission

Vision

• Every rural household has drinking water supply in adequate quantity of prescribed quality on regular and long-term basis at affordable service delivery charges leading to improvement in living standards of rural communities.

Mission

Jal Jeevan Mission is to assist, empower and facilitate:

• States/ UTs in planning of participatory rural water supply strategy for ensuring potable drinking water security on long-term basis to every rural household and public institution, viz. GP building, School, Anganwadi centre, Health centre, wellness centres, etc.
• States/ UTs for creation of water supply infrastructure so that every rural household has Functional Tap Connection (FHTC) by 2024 and water in adequate quantity of prescribed quality is made available on regular basis.
• States/ UTs to plan for their drinking water security
• GPs/ rural communities to plan, implement, manage, own, operate and maintain their own in-village water supply systems
• Capacity building of the stakeholders and create awareness in community on significance of water for improvement in quality of life

Objectives

• To provide FHTC to every rural household.
• To prioritize provision of FHTCs in quality affected areas, villages in drought prone and desert areas, Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) villages, etc.
• To provide functional tap connection to Schools, Anganwadi centres, GP buildings, Health centres, wellness centres and community buildings
• To monitor functionality of tap connections.
• To promote and ensure voluntary ownership among local community by way of contribution in cash, kind and/ or labour and voluntary labour (shramdaan)
• To assist in ensuring sustainability of water supply system, i.e. water source, water supply infrastructure, and funds for regular O&M
• To empower and develop human resource in the sector such that the demands of construction, plumbing, electrical, water quality management, water treatment, catchment protection, O&M, etc. are taken care of in short and long term
• To bring awareness on various aspects and significance of safe drinking water and involvement of stakeholders in manner that make water everyone’s business

Components under JJM

• Efforts should be made to source funds from different sources/ programmes and convergence is the key
• Development of in-village piped water supply infrastructure to provide tap water connection to every rural household
• Development of reliable drinking water sources and/ or augmentation of existing sources to provide long-term sustainability of water supply system
• Wherever necessary, bulk water transfer, treatment plants and distribution network to cater to every rural household
• Technological interventions for removal of contaminants where water quality is an issue
• Retrofitting of completed and ongoing schemes to provide FHTCs at minimum service level of 55 lpcd;
• Greywater management
• Support activities, i.e. IEC, HRD, training, development of utilities, water quality laboratories, water quality testing & surveillance, R&D, knowledge centre, capacity building of communities, etc.
• Any other unforeseen challenges/ issues emerging due to natural disasters/ calamities which affect the goal of FHTC to every household by 2024, as per guidelines of Ministry of Finance on Flexi Funds
• Funding Pattern: The fund sharing pattern between the Centre and states is 90:10 for Himalayan and North-Eastern States, 50:50 for other states,and 100% for Union Territories.
• For the implementation of JJM, following institutional arrangement has been proposed:
  • National Jal Jeevan Mission (NJJM) at the Central level
  • State Water and Sanitation Mission (SWSM) at the State level
  • District Water and Sanitation Mission (DWSM) at the District level
  • Village Water Sanitation Committee (VWSC) at Village level