Jal Jeevan Mission, is envisioned to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in rural India. NITI Aayog in 2018 predicted in the NITI Aayog’s Composite Water Management Index (CWMI), that 21 states in India can experience extreme water scarcity including the scarcity of drinking water. This was termed “DAY ZERO”. According to the index, the cities which shall be affected are Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. According to the reports, 84% of Indian rural households lack access to piped water, while 75% of rural families lack access to drinking water on-premise. More on government official website.

 

What is Jal Jeevan Mission Scheme [Complete Analysis]

Also Read: 15 Best Questions on Meghalaya Government Schemes for UPSC/PSC/SSC Exams

In India the rural-urban divide is at its highest, Indian government in an attempt to bridge this gap and to meet the basic necessity of life has launched Jal Jeevan Mission (“JJM”) on 15^th August 2019. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi while giving the independence day speech of 2019 from Red Fort, Announced the scheme, the scheme foresees the supply of an adequate quantity of clean tap water in every rural household by 2024.

At the time when the scheme was announced i.e. in 2019 only 17% i.e. 3.23 Crore out of 18.93 Crore of the rural households had tap water connections and the rest were dependent upon water sources far away from their home. The aim of this scheme is "Har Ghar Jal". The funding shall be shared between the Centre and the state. The centre shall be funding 100% in the union territories, 90% in the northeast and Himalayan states and 50% in other states. Therefore, funding shall be in the following ratios:-

• 100% = Union territories
• 50:50 = Other states
• 90:10 = Himalayan and North Eastern States

 

Aim of the Mission

The main aim of this mission is to provide 100% tap water connection through Functional Household Tap Connections (“FHTC”) in rural households. Along, with that, it supplements the aim of achieving sustainability in the usage of water through recycling and reuse of greywater through greywater treatment plants. The government is spending on the communication of this scheme. Since this scheme is based upon a community approach Education, Information and communication are the key components of this scheme.

According to the Jal Jeevan Mission(JJM), the target is to supply a minimum of 55 Liters of water per person per rural household through FHTC by 2024 which is way above WHO’s prescribed limit of 25 liters of water per person per day. Improving and integrating water supply channel in rural areas, and improving infrastructure is the major backbone of this scheme, which include building tap water connections, to infrastructure supporting groundwater and rainwater conservation. The ambit of this mission shall be broadened by rolling out “Nal se Jal” scheme under this mission which shall widen the target of Jal Jeevan Mission(JJM) from rural households to every household.

 

Objectives

• The mission ensures the supply of clean water in every rural household and public institutions such as Schools, Health Centres, Anganwadi etc
• The supply of water shall be possible by creating adequate water supply infrastructure through FHTC in a prescribed quantity
• Drinking water security
• The water management shall be done by the gram panchayat in rural areas such as management, operations and maintenance of the Village's water supply systems, this shall give a sense of atmanirbharta among the rural Indians.
• The scheme shall also aim to spread awareness about the JJM along with mobilizing finance to the states and UTs for implementation.
• The mission prioritizes the areas such as Sansad Adarsh Ram Yojana Villages, water scare areas, desert areas and villages facing drought.

 

Components

• A major component of the scheme is funding which is aimed to be sourced from multiple sources.
• Construction of village-level piped water infrastructure to connect every rural home to the public water supply.
• To ensure the long-term sustainability of the water delivery system, reliable drinking water sources should be developed or existing sources should be increased.
• Every rural family can be served by bulk water transfers, treatment facilities, and distribution networks as needed.
• Technological solutions, where poor water quality exists to remove contaminants.
• Management of Graywater.
• IEC, HRD, training, utility development, water quality laboratories, water quality testing & surveillance, R&D, knowledge center, community capacity building, etc are examples of support activities.
• Any additional difficulties or problems arising from natural catastrophes or tragedies that have an impact on the Ministry of Finance's instructions on Flexi Funds' objective of providing FHTC to every household by 2024

 

Main Features 

• The benefit of the mission shall be enjoyed by 19 Crore rural households, and it is predicted that this will increase up to 90 Crore. Thus, this will help to bridge the gap between urban and rural households in connection to the water supply.
• Jal Jeevan Mission(JJM) will benefit the rural women, as the mission shall destroy the historic drudgery of fetching water from far away and in severe weather conditions. Therefore, rural women can concentrate on self-development.
• Jal Jeevan Mission(JJM) shall be beneficial on the health care front as there will be less water born drinking due to a clean water supply from the tap.
• JJM focuses on every household in rural areas instead of a rural village. Thus, this scheme is a prime example of inclusion and this inclusion will be beneficial in long term. Thus, this emphasis is on service delivery and functionality.
• Regular testing of water quality by government-accredited labs and Anganwadi workers via water testing kits.

 

Implementation 

The Union and State governments have worked together to implement the programme. Operational Guidelines issued by the union serve as a set of directives for the states. The rural villages have received another directive called "Margdarshika for Gram Panchayat and village water & Sanitation Committees (VWSCs)" to inform them of the foundation and implementation of the scheme.

The scheme follows a Bottom up approach where various committees and sub-communities are created such as Pani Samities where a minimum of 50% of women and other weaker sections have representations to manage the water supply at the village level. Whereas villages are identified as censor-coded villages in units and action plans are identified in the state, district, and village levels.

 

Success or Failure

We have achieved various miles stones since 2019 but for this mission, target year is set to 2024. At the start of the scheme, only 17% of crores of rural households had tap water connections. So far in October 2022, this has increased to 54.4%. Also, Goa was the first state to achieve the target of 100% water connection in every rural household and till now Telangana, Haryana and Union Territories of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu and Puducherry have achieved the 100% target. In contrast, Uttar Pradesh stands at the bottom with only 19.42 % of rural tap water connections as of October 2022.

In areas where Japanese encephalitis is prevalent, 38% of all homes, or around 1.12 crores, now have access to quality piped water. This water, which is up from 3% in 2019, is crucial to enhancing health outcomes. In the aspirational districts, tap water connections have now been made available to an additional 1.18 crore families, or 35% of the total, up from 8% in 2019. JJM is therefore a successful scheme.

 

Way Forward

The JJM is moving at a perfect pace and it seems that it soon will complete the target of 100% tap water connection in rural households by 2024. But there are a few suggestions which can help improve the scheme.

• The government should ensure every household has an attached water meter to ensure there is no wastage of water. This will help to track the water usage of every household and can help the government to track the water usage data of India correctly.
• Regular inspection should be conducted in the rural household with respect to water quality and quantity. This step will ensure the long-term viability of the scheme and keep the red tape in check.
• Government should impose fines on commercial industries and individual households for water wastage and polluting the water bodies.