Nearly two-thirds of rural housholds have access to tap water

At the time of the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission in August 2019, out of 19.43 crore rural households, only 3.23 crore (16.65%) had access to tap water, said the ministry in a statement.

“5 states of Gujarat, Telangana, Goa, Haryana, and Punjab and 3 Union Territories of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Daman Diu & Dadra Nagar Haveli and Puducherry have reported 100% coverage,” the ministry said.

The country is steadily progressing towards covering all the rural households will have safe drinking water through taps, it added.

In just about three years, more than 8.42 crore rural households with more than 40 crore people have been benefitted under the programme. This is more than the population of US (33.1 crore), almost twice the population of Brazil (21 crore) and Nigeria (20 crore), and more than thrice the population of Mexico (12.8 crore) & Japan (12.6 crore).

With focus on health and well-being of children, special efforts have been made to provide tap water connection in all rural schools, anganwadi centres and ashramshalas (tribal residential schools) for drinking, cooking mid-day meal, hand washing and use in toilets. As on date, tap water supply has been provided in 9.03 lakh (88.26%) schools and 9.36 lakh (83.71%) anganwadi centres.

“Supply of safe water” has been one of the key considerations under the JJM. At the time of launch of JJM, there were 14,020 arsenic and 7,996 fluoride affected reported habitations in the country.

“In a short span of 3 years, since the launch of JJM, with concerted efforts of states/UTs, the number of such habitations has reduced to 612 and 431 respectively. Even in these habitations, safe water is now available for drinking and cooking, to all the people,” the ministry said.

In effect, all 1.79 crore people livening in arsenic or fluoride affected habitations, are now getting safe water for drinking and cooking purposes, it added.

About 2,078 water testing labs have been set up, of which 1,122 are NABL accredited. To create awareness about water quality, more than 21 lakh women have been trained in rural areas for testing water samples using field test kits.

In 2022-23 alone, 1.03 crore water samples have been tested through such kits and 61 lakh water samples were tested through laboratories. A special ‘Swachh Jal se Suraksha’ campaign was launched by the Mission and water quality testing was reported in 5.33 lakh villages for chemicals and in 4.28 lakh villages for biological contamination (post monsoon) during the 2022-23.

These efforts are likely to lead to significant reduction in cases of water borne diseases in the country.