Budget Under Jal Jeevan Mission For FY23 Increased To Rs 60,000 Crore: Govt

In the financial year 2021-22, over Rs 40,000 crore grant has been released to States and UTs based on the output in terms of providing household tap water connections and utilisation of available Central grant with matching State share under the Jal Jeevan Mission, an official release said on Thursday (31 March).

The budget under Jal Jeevan Mission for 2022-23 has been enhanced to Rs 60,000 crore by the central government, the Jal Shakti Ministry said in a release.

The ministry said that despite COVID-19 pandemic and resultant lockdowns and disruption in last two years, implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission has made significant progress and during the FY22, more than 2.06 crore rural households have been provided tap water connection.

At present, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadar and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Goa, Haryana, Puducherry and Telangana have become ‘Har Ghar Jal' states and UTs, and every household in 106 districts and 1.45 lakh villages of the country have tap water supply, the ministry said.

"Since announcement of Jal Jeevan Mission on 15 August, 2019, so far, more than 6 crore households have been provided with tap water connections, thus increasing the tap water supply from 3.23 Crore (17 per cent) to more than 9.35 Crore (48.4 per cent) rural households in the country," it added.

This ‘speed and scale’ of the works being undertaken for making provision of clean drinking water to every rural household needs to be sustained to ensure all 6 lakh villages becomes “Har Ghar Jal’ by 2024, the ministry said.

According to the ministry, the mission focuses on assured supply of potable water to every home and the work is not just limited to merely infrastructure creation.

Massive training and skilling programme are being taken up to build the capacity of public health engineers, state and district officials and local community, ensuring active participation, regular monitoring and long-term sustainability of the infrastructure created.

The mission envisages that Public Health Engineering Department and Gram Panchayats, and Village Water and Sanitation committee play the role of a public utility.

"Women are the nuclei of the programme as they are the primary water managers. They are made part of Pani Samiti and Surveillance committee and are responsible for planning, maintenance, operation and management of the water supply system," it said.

As on date, 4.78 lakh Pani Samiti have been constituted and over 3.91 lakh Village Action Plans have been developed which cover activities under water source strengthening, retrofitting of existing tap water connections, greywater management and maintenance of the infrastructure for the entire design cycle, the ministry said.

All the in-village water systems are being handed over to the Gram Panchayats who will in times to come become the custodian and will act as service providers for the public, it added.