New Delhi: The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is celebrating a new milestone of ensuring safe and clean drinking water through taps to more than 12 crore rural households in the country.

At the time of the announcement of the launch of JJM by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019, only 3.23 crore (16.64%) households in villages had access to piped water connections. As of date, five states (Goa, Telangana, Haryana, Gujarat and Punjab) and three union territories (Puducherry, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Andaman and Nicobar Islands), have reported 100% coverage.

Himachal Pradesh at 98.35%, followed by Bihar at 96.05%, are also poised to achieve saturation in the near future.

With the help of state governments, JJM has also reached in 9.06 lakh (88.55%) schools and 9.39 lakh (84%) Anganwadi centres in the country. In the 112 aspirational districts of our country, at the time of the launch of the Mission, only 21.64 lakh (7.84%) households had access to tap water which has now increased to 1.67 crore (60.51%).

Three aspirational districts from Telangana, two districts in Gujarat and Punjab and one each in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have reported 100% tap water coverage.

JJM is resulting in significant socio-economic benefits to the rural population. Regular tap water supply relieves people, especially women and young girls, from carrying heavy bucket loads of water to meet their daily household needs thereby reducing age-old drudgery.

In order to achieve long-term sustainability of the scheme, community participation from the beginning has been at the heart of planning, implementation, operations and maintenance of rural piped water supply schemes.

More than 5.24 lakh Village Water and Sanitation Committees have been constituted in the country and 5.12 lakh Village Action Plans have been prepared, including the plans for drinking water source augmentation, greywater treatment and its reuse.

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