Lok Sabha Question No. 2344 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-08-03
Subject: Piped Water Connections
Ministry: JAL SHAKTI
Asked by: Sujay Radhakrishna Vikhepatil, Shrikant Eknath Shinde, Unmesh Bhaiyyasaheb Patil, Krishna Pal Singh Yadav, T.R.V.S. Ramesh, Dharmendra Kumar Kashyap, M.K. Vishnu Prasad, Deepak Baij, S.R. Parthiban, Beesetti  Venkata Satyavathi, Badruddin Ajmal, Mahesh Sahoo

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO-2344

ANSWERED ON-03/08/2023

## PIPED WATER CONNECTIONS

2344.   DR. SUJAY RADHAKRISHNA VIKHE PATIL:

DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE:

SHRI UNMESH BHAIYYASAHEB PATIL:

DR. KRISHNA PAL SINGH YADAV:

PROF. RITA BAHUGUNA JOSHI:

DR. HEENA VIJAYKUMAR GAVIT:

Will the Minister of JAL SHAKTI be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the progress made regarding the number of rural households in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra which have been provided with piped water connections under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM);
- (b) the details of the strategies and approaches adopted to accelerate the pace of implementation and achieve the mission's target of universal coverage within the stipulated timeline;
- (c) the details of the steps taken by the Government to ensure the quality and sustainability of drinking water supply systems established under the JJM;
- (d) whether the maintenance and regular testing of water quality is being addressed to prevent contamination and safeguard public health under the mission and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) whether the integration of technologies like remote sensing, Internet of Things (IoT) and data  analytics  been  utilised  to  optimize  water  resource  management  and  enhance  service delivery as proposed and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR JAL SHAKTI

(SHRI PRAHLAD SINGH PATEL)

- (a) Since August 2019, Government of India is implementing Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) - Har Ghar Jal in partnership with States including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra to make provision of tap water supply to every rural household. Since launch of JJM, additional 9.45 Crore rural households have been provided tap connections. Thus, as on 31.07.2023, out of 19.42 crore rural households in the country, provision of tap water supply has been made to 12.69 Crore (65.33%) rural households.

As reported by the States of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, the progress of tap water connections made under JJM, as on 31.07.2023, is as under:

|   S. No. | State/ UT      |   Total rural HHs as on 31.07.2023 |   Rural HHs with tap water connection as on 15.08.2019 |   No. of rural HHs with tap water connection provided under JJM as on 31.07.2023 |
|----------|----------------|------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|        1 | Uttar Pradesh  |                             262.4  |                                                   5.16 |                                                                           139.04 |
|        2 | Madhya Pradesh |                             119.63 |                                                  13.53 |                                                                            47.86 |
|        3 | Maharashtra    |                             146.73 |                                                  48.44 |                                                                            65.72 |

(b) To implement the JJM in the whole country, a number of steps have been taken inter alia , which includes joint discussion and finalization of annual action plan (AAP) of States/ UTs, regular review of implementation, workshops/ conferences/ webinars for capacity building and knowledge sharing, field visits by multi-disciplinary team to provide technical support, etc. For online  monitoring,  JJM-Integrated  Management  Information  System  (IMIS)  and  JJMDashboard has been put in place. Provision has also been made for transparent online financial management through Public Financial Management System (PFMS).

(c)  &  (d)  Under  JJM,  to  ensure  the  quality  of  works  the  provision  has  been  made  in  the operational guidelines of JJM to involve third party inspection agencies (TPIAs) for all water supply  works.  The  provision  has  also  been  made  to  maintain  oversight  of  community  in planning,  monitoring  and  O&M  of  water  supply  systems.  The  installation  of  transparency board and handing over of the work completion certificate and subsequent passing resolution in Gram Sabha regarding 'Har Ghar Jal', certifying that all households, schools and anganwadis in the village have tap water, is mandatory before village is certified as 'Har Ghar Jal'.

In addition, the National WASH (Water sanitation and hygiene) experts have been deployed to assist  the  States/  UTs  to  provide  technical  assistance  at  field  level  and  carry  independent assessment of village. The reports of National WASH experts are also put up in public domain.

For the assuring the quality of the water, the States/UTs have been advised to undertake testing of water quality on a periodic basis i.e. once in year for chemical and physical parameters, and twice in a year for bacteriological parameters and take remedial action wherever necessary, to ensure that the water supplied to households is of prescribed quality.

As reported by States/UTs, as on 31.07.2023, there are 2,087 drinking water quality testing laboratories  at  different  levels  viz.  State,  District,  sub-division  and/  or  block  level  in  the country. To encourage water quality testing to ensure potable drinking water supply, States/ UTs have opened water quality testing laboratories to general public for testing of their water samples at a nominal rate.

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. As reported by States/UTs on WQMIS, more than 62.81 lakh water samples have been tested in the water testing laboratories and 107.92 lakh water samples using Field Testing Kits, during 2022-23. The State-wise details of water quality test reported through WQMIS are available in public domain on JJM Dashboard and can also be accessed at:

https://ejalshakti.gov.in/WQMIS/Main/report

(e)  Provisions  have  been  made  in  the  Operational  Guidelines  of  JJM  regarding  smart technologies like Internet of Things (IoT). The Government of India has also issued advisory to all States/ UTs to consider sensor based IoT solutions to measure and monitor water supply in rural areas. States have been allowed to utilize Support funds of JJM for all such activities.

To encourage States/ UTs for promoting usage of IoT sensors, Department of Drinking Water and  Sanitation  in  collaboration  with  Ministry  of  Electronics  and  Information  Technology (MEITY) conducted an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Grand Challenge wherein IoT sensors were deployed at 100 locations across the country. These sensors have been integrated with JJM dashboard and provides real time data of water service delivery. States like Goa, Gujarat and Bihar have taken a lead in deployment of IoT sensors in drinking water supply infrastructure.

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