PM Narendra Modi’s Jal Jeevan Mission gains impetus

As you all would agree, water is synonymous with life. No wonder, it has become the need of the hour to conserve water for one and all. With that in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the flagship initiative called Jal Jeevan Mission in 2020. With the tagline of “Har Ghar Jal”, it is committed towards supplying water across all household in the country.  

Recently, it has been gaining limelight and is said to be adding brand-new impetus to the development of the nation. In fact, Narendra Modi twitted that in less than three years, free and safe water has reached crores of houses, especially in semi-urban and rural areas, as a result of mass participation and aspirations.  

As per the statistics provided by several media sources, till 2019, only 3.23 crore households had direct connect to water supply, while the number has now gone up to 9.40 crores within a few years. In fact, more than 1.5 lakh villages spread across 107 districts have benefitted from the Jal Jeevan Mission; and so have 17.39 lakh schools. Meanwhile, several Anganwadi Kendras have also been connected to main water line.  

Moreover, as part of the Jal Jeevan Mission, 4.82 lakh water committees have been constituted for reaching healthy drinking water in the villages. In addition, approximately 9.69 lakh rural women have been trained to check the quality of water in their households. Likewise, over 4 lakh villages have gained the facility to test the tap water quality at the local level, either by themselves or by the sanitation department who regularly visit the regions.  

Apart from providing water to all houses nationwide, the programme is also aimed at decentralisation. As for the next steps, the goal is to accomplish 100 percent tap water coverage for all families by the end of 2024. Some of the promising results seen so far are: 20 percent rise in tap water coverage in Uttar Pradesh within a year, where 55 litres of water per capita per day are provided to 57 percent of the rural homes.   

However, the Jal Jeevan Mission just like any other programmes have had its hindrances. For instance, UP despite having adequate water supply has seen delay in implementation due to the lack of substantial efforts from the state government. Rajasthan on the other hand has the problem of being highly dependent on groundwater which is mostly unavailable due to frequent drought conditions. West Bengal too has plenty of water sources but faces the issue of contamination.