Lok Sabha Question No. 2392 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-13
Subject: Piped Drinking Water under JJM
Ministry: JAL SHAKTI
Asked by: Dr. Kirsan Namdeo

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF JAL SHAKTI DEPARTMENT OF DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2392

## ANSWERED ON - 13.03.2025

## PIPED DRINKING WATER UNDER JJM

## 2392. DR. KIRSAN NAMDEO:

Will the Minister of JAL SHAKTI be pleased to state:

(a) the impact of implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) to provide piped drinking water  to the rural households in the country;

(b) the progress made towards achieving the target of providing piped water to all till 2024;

(c) the  measures  taken  for  operation  and  maintenance  of  infrastructure,  community participation and financial feasibility to ensure stability and consistency of the water supply schemes implemented under JJM;

(d) the  initiatives  taken  to  improve  the  quality  of  potable  water  and  the  provision  for treating effluent water sources and water testing facilities in rural areas; and

(e) whether the steps have been taken by the Government to address the challenges faced under JJM, like delay in project implementation, insufficient funding and capacity building at the ground level and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR JAL SHAKTI (SHRI. V. SOMANNA)

(a)  & (b) Government of India in partnership with State/UTs is implementing Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) - Har Ghar Jal to make provision of potable water to every rural household of the country, through functional tap water connection i.e. at a service level of 55 litre per capita per day (lpcd), of prescribed quality (BIS:10500), on regular and long-term basis. At  the  start  of  Jal  Jeevan  Mission  in  August  2019,  only  3.23  Crore  (16.8%)  rural households were reported to have tap water connections. So far, as reported by States/ UTs as on 09.03.2025, around 12.28 Crore additional rural households have been provided with tap  water  connections  under  JJM.  Thus,  as  on  09.03.2025,  out  of  19.42  Crore  rural households  in  the  country,  more  than  15.51  Crore  (79.91%)  households  are  reported  to have tap water supply in their homes.

Under  Jal  Jeevan  Mission,  positive  impacts  are  being  assessed  by  reputed  national  and international institutions/ individuals. A few of these are listed as under:

- i. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that achieving saturation under

JJM will result in savings of more than 5.5 Crore hours of time every day, which is otherwise  spent  in  collection  of  water  for  household  needs,  primarily  for women.

- ii. The World Health Organization  (WHO) has  also  estimated  that  ensuring  safely managed drinking  water  for  all  households  in  the  country  could  prevent  nearly 400,000 deaths caused by diarrheal diseases leading to savings of approximately 14  million  Disability Adjusted  Life  Years  (DALYs)  on  account  of  the  lives  so saved.
- iii. Nobel  laureate  Prof.  Michael  Kremer  has  published  a  research  paper  and  has concluded that the coverage of all households with safe water, is likely to lead to almost 30% reduction in mortality among children below the age of five years, amounting to 1,36,000 lives saved annually.
- iv. The  report released by  the Indian Institute  of  Management  Bangalore,  in partnership with International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission shall result in 59.9 lakh person-years of direct and 2.2 Crore person-years of indirect employment during the capex phase of  JJM.  Furthermore, the operation and maintenance of the Mission is likely to generate 13.3 lakh person-years of direct employment.

(c) To  ensure  long  term  sustainability  of  infrastructure  created,  quality  material  and quality construction is being ensured through third party inspection before making payment. Moreover, to instil the sense of ownership among the rural communities and Panchayats, the aspects of village level planning and community participation in all decisions pertaining to water supply systems have been included in the design of JJM. Some of the major initiatives taken up under the mission for participation of rural community are listed as under:

- Around  5.30  lakh  sub-committee/  user  group  of  the  Gram  Panchayats  i.e.  Village Water & Sanitation Committee (VWSC) or Pani Samiti with at least 50% women members and suitable representation to marginalized sections of society, have been constituted  to  plan,  implement,  manage,  operate,  and  maintain  in-village  water supply system.
- Five  women  are  identified  and  trained  from  every  village  for  testing  the  water samples  through  Field  Test  Kits  (FTKs)  and  so  far,  24.81  lakh  women  have  been trained and so far, more than 89.55 lakh samples have been tested through FTKs in 2024-25.
- More than 14,000 NGOs/ VOs/ Women SHGs/ CBOs/ Trusts/ Foundations referred as  ISAs  are  engaged  across  the  country to  facilitate  community participation  at  all levels of planning, implementation, management, operation and maintenance of invillage water supply systems and contribution.

Provisions for taking up augmentation and strengthening of local drinking water sources in convergence with other schemes viz. MGNREGS, 15th Finance Commission grants to Rural Local Bodies (RLBs)/ Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP), State schemes, MP/ MLA-LAD funds, District Mineral Development  Fund,  CSR  funds,  community  contribution,  etc.  have  also  been  envisaged under the JJM.

In  addition,  to  address  the  issue  of  operation  &  maintenance  of  water  supply  schemes, provision has also been made under JJM to reward/ incentivize the community in a phasedmanner after the commissioning of the scheme to the tune of 10% of the capital expenditure on their respective in- village water supply scheme along with collection of user charges.

(d) Water being a State subject, States/ UTs have been advised to undertake testing of water quality on a periodic basis and take remedial action wherever necessary, to ensure that the water supplied to households is of prescribed quality to meet health and safety standards. Moreover,  to  enable  States/  UTs  to  test  water  samples  for  water  quality,  and  for  sample collection, reporting, monitoring and surveillance of drinking water sources, an online JJM Water Quality Management Information System (WQMIS) portal has been developed.

To treat greywater/ wastewater coming out of the households, the State/ UTs are encouraged to build soak pits in rural areas using JJM funds under convergence with other schemes.

(e) States  have  informed  that  lack  of  dependable  drinking  water  sources  in  waterstressed,  drought  prone  and  desert  areas,  presence  of  geo-genic  contaminants  in  ground water,  uneven  geographical  terrain,  scattered  rural  habitations,  delay  in  release  of  the matching State share in some States, lack of technical capacity with implementing agencies, Gram  Panchayats  and  local  communities  to  plan,  manage,  operate  &  maintain  the  water supply schemes, rising price of raw materials, delay in obtaining statutory/ other clearances, etc. are few of problems being faced in the implementation of the Mission.

To address the challenges holistically and overcome these, Government of India has taken a number  of  steps, inter  alia including  implementation  of  Special  Assistance  to  States  for Capital  Expenditure  through  M/o  Finance  for  financial  assistance  as  50-year  interest  free loan  for  capital  investment  projects;  nomination  of  a  nodal  officer  in  the  Department  for coordinating with Central nodal Ministries/ Departments/ agencies to facilitate the States in obtaining  Statutory/  other  clearances;  setting  up  of  State  Programme  Management  Units (SPMUs)  and  District  Programme  Management  Units  (DPMUs)  and  implementation  of ' Nal  Jal  Mitra  Programme '  for  ensuring  availability  of skilled local persons at village level  to  bridge  the  gap  in  availability  of  technical  skill  sets  and  of  HR  for  programme management.

Further, recognizing the importance of sustainable water management especially for drinking water availability, Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain (JSA: CTR) was implemented with the theme ' Source Sustainability for Drinking Water ' in 2023. Similarly, in 2024, JSA has been implemented with the theme " Nari Shakti se Jal Shakti ".

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