For FY 2022 More Than Rs. 1 Lakh Crore Allocated For Ensuring Tap Water Supply

As the Jal Jeevan Mission – Har Ghar Jal announced on 15^th August, 2019, to provide Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) to every rural home by 2024, enters its third year of implementation with a Central grant of Rs.50,011 Crore in 2021-22, the National Jal Jeevan Mission, Ministry of Jal Shakti is set to roll out the annual planning exercise with States/ UTs from 9^th April, 2021. This month-long exercise, daily taking up two States/ UTs, is done by a committee chaired by Secretary, DDWS and with members from different Central Ministries/ Departments and NITI Aayog to do rigorous scrutiny of the proposed Annual Action Plan (AAP) prepared by states/ UTs before finalizing the same. Thereafter, funds are released throughout the year and regular field visits, review meetings are held to ensure implementation of these Annual Action Plans to achieve the goal of Jal Jeevan Mission.

Financial Plan for Har Ghar Jal- Jal Jeevan Mission

As the financial year 2021-22 begins, the rigorous joint review exercise to finalize the Annual Action Plans (AAPs) is all set to begin from 9^th April. This year is a very critical year for JJM, which requires intensive planning based on rigorous data analysis, capacity of States/ UTs to execute the work based on last two year’s progress, their preparedness, etc. While implementing, States/ UTs are to give priority to water quality-affected areas, villages in drought-prone and desert areas, Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe majority villages, 60 JE-AES affected and 117 Aspirational districts and Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana villages to provide all households with tap water connection in a time-bound manner.

In addition to the 50,000 Crore budgetary allocation for JJM, there is also Rs. 26,940 Crore assured fund available under the 15^th Finance Commission tied grants to RLB/ PRIs for water & sanitation, matching State share and externally aided projects. Thus, in 2021-22, more than Rs. 1 lakh Crore is planned to be invested in the country on ensuring tap water supply to rural homes. This kind of investment is likely to continue over three years to achieve Har Ghar Jal.

State Level Planning

The State Action Plan is prepared by States/ UTs with an objective to provide 100% of households with tap water connections and achieve overall drinking water security. This is the master plan with detailed information on number of schemes to be retrofitted/ new schemes to achieve saturation along with timelines to initiate and complete& commission the schemes on ground. It will also identify sources of convergence, invest in sensor-based IoT technology for real-time monitoring and measurement of water supply, firm up State O&M policy, intensify IEC/ BCC, Water Quality Monitoring &Surveillance activities, etc.

The AAP (2021–22)will further emphasize on support activities like empowering Village Water & Sanitation Committees (VWSCs)/ Pani Samitis, preparation and approval of Village Action Plans (VAPs) which will have the components of drinking water source strengthening/ augmentation, water supply infrastructure, greywater treatment & reuse, and operation & maintenance of in-village water supply systems. The States/ UTs are also to plan for intense training and skilling programmes, especially 5 persons in every village on water quality surveillance and local community members as masons, plumbers, electricians, motor mechanics, fitter, pump operators, etc.

The special campaign to provide tap water connections in schools, Anganwadi centres (AWCs) and Ashramshalas under the Jal Jeevan Mission has received a very good response from the States & UTs with several States reporting 100% saturation in all schools and AWCs. All the remaining States/ UTs have to complete provision of PWS for drinking, cooking mid-day meals, handwashing and use in toilets. In these institutions, rainwater harvesting and grey water reuse is promoted in a big way so that our future generations inculcate the spirit of holistic management of water for water security and improved hygiene and sanitation in villages.

Further, States/ UTs also have the opportunity to receive performance incentive provided they have good physical and financial progress, functionality of PWS schemes and capacity to utilize the fund. In 2020-21, seven States viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh received performance incentive grant of Rs.465 Crore under the JJM.

While announcing the mission, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi stated that Jal Jeevan Mission will be implemented in partnership with States and water has to be made everyone’ business. On 22^nd March, 2021, while launching 2^nd edition of Jal Shakti Abhiyan, Prime Minister exhorted the nation to catch the rain wherever and whenever it falls. This annual planning exercise is to translate the vision of Prime Minister to involve everyone, work in partnership by ensuring that planning and implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission is done in a participatory manner. At State and district level, NGOs, voluntary organizations, self-help groups, etc. are involved in supporting the local village communities as implementation support agencies. Further, 124 - reputed national level NGOs, trusts, foundations, institutions and UN agencies are also involved as sector partner to dovetail their efforts to achieve the goal of Har Ghar Jal.

After the presentation of budget on 1^st February, 2021, Prime Minister has set the agenda for speedy implementation of all infrastructure related projects by ensuring stakeholder’s consultation. A Webinar was held on 16 & 17^th February, which was addressed by the Prime Minister to seek the views of various stakeholders like State Governments, experts, UN agencies, sector partners, NGOs, etc. to implement the mission with speed and scale by ensuring people’s participation. The Jal Jeevan Mission specific stakeholder’s consultation was addressed by Union Jal Shakti Minister Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Minister of State Shri Rattan Lal Kataria. To give it a further push, a virtual conference of States/ UT’s Minister on Jal Jeevan Mission was also held so that all states/ UTs work in unison to achieve the common goal i.e. safe piped water supply to every home.

Since launch of this mission in August 2019, despite the CoVid-19 pandemic, subsequent lockdowns and huge challenges, so far over 4.07 Crore rural households have been provided with tap water connections. Now, over 7.30 Crore i.e. 38% rural households are getting potable water through taps. Goa has become the first State in the country to provide every rural household with tap water supply followed by Telangana and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The persistent efforts made by States/ UTs and district authorities along with Gram Panchayats and local communities have helped in providing assured tap water supply to every family living in 58 districts and over 87 thousand villages. This is the speed and scale, with which the Mission is working to change the lives of people living in rural areas. States/ UTs are now competing with each other and focusing on the target to ensure that every household in the country gets safe drinking water, so that 'no one is left out’.

Figure 1: Timelines for providing 100% FHTCs

To bring in transparency and make information available to citizen, NJJM has developed JJM dashboard wherein the online progress of implementation and status of tap water supply in homes has been put in public domain. The JJM dashboard not only provides detailed information of the country but one can see the status of implementation and progress at State/ UT level, district level and village level. Information related to water supply in villages including names of the head of households who have got tap water connection, status of water supply in schools and anganwadi centres including piped water in toilets and hand washing facilities along with provision of rain water harvesting and grey water use are also provided. The dashboard also provides information about institutional arrangements like people managing various aspects of water supply in villages including water quality testing.

The JJM dashboard also shows the ‘sensor-based IoT pilot project going on different villages which shows the status of daily water supply in terms of quantity, quality and regularity. In these pilots one can see the quality of water including chlorination, water pressure in pipes at different places and per capita supply on daily basis. This dashboard can be accessed at:https://ejalshakti.gov.in/jjmreport/JJMIndia.aspx