Water is precious and healthy as well. By supplying safe water to every household, several health problems can be kept at bay.
Under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) – Har Ghar Jal, the Union government has taken up Functional Household Tap Connections (FFTC) to every rural home.
The JJM was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2019, on the lines of Mission Bhagiratha, an initiative of the government of Telangana soon after it came to power.
However, this mission was initiated by the government of Gujarat even before Mission Bhagiratha, but it was unable to complete, whereas three States and three Union Territories have reached cent per cent completion.
Three States and three Union Territories (UTs), including Goa - 2,63,013 households, Haryana - 30,96,792, Telangana - 54,06,070, Puducherry - 1,14,908, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu - 85,156, and Andaman Nicobar Islands - 62,037, have achieved the total target.
Another four States – Punjab - 34,25,330 out of total 34,40,065 with 99.57%, Gujarat - 86,18,924 against total households of 91,77,459 with 93.91%, Himachal Pradesh - 16,03,244 against a total of 17,27,518 with 92.81%, and Bihar - 1,56,02,551 against 1,72,20,634 with 90.60%, have reached more than 90% target.
States like Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh are at the bottom with 13.42%, 19.33% and 20.05% respectively.
As on March 20, a total of 9,23,50,079 households in the country, against a total households of 19,31,99,823, got safe drinking water connections, while 3,23,62,838 households already had tap connection by the date of launch of the programme in 2019. As many as 5,99,87,241 households were provided with FFTCs after launch of the mission, reaching a target of 31.05%.
As far as water supply to schools, anganwadi centres, grama panchayats and community health centres were concerned, 16 States and UTs were able to achieve 100% target. This data is available on the dash board of JJM.
“Every State has been making best possible effort to provide potable drinking to every household. Though Gujarat started the potable water supply, it could not complete it, while Telangana has implemented the programme under Mission Bhagiratha. Bihar too had its own programme to supply drinking water to villages even before announcement of JJM. The State followed single village supply (SVS) system whereas Telangana followed the grid system under which supply for several village will be from single source. In the SVS., the responsibility will be on panchayat, whereas in the grid, the responsibility will be on State government,” said an officer of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development on condition of anonymity
