New Delhi, Mar 24, 2025, IANS

New Delhi, March 24 (IANS) More than 12.3 crore additional rural households have been provided with tap water connections as of March 17 this year under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) – Har Ghar Jal scheme which was launched in August 2019, the Parliament was informed on Monday. The number of rural households in the country with tap water connections has gone up from 3.23 crore (16.7 per cent) in August 2019 to 15.53 crore as of March 17, 2025, which constitutes 80.2 per cent of India’s total rural households, Minister of State for Jal Shakti V. Somanna told the Lok Sabha in a written reply. “Work for the remaining 3.83 crore households are at various stages of completion as per the saturation plan of the respective state or UT,” the minister said. The initial estimated outlay of the Mission was Rs. 3.60 lakh crore, out of which Central share was Rs. 2.08 lakh crore. The entire Central share approved by the Cabinet has almost been utilised. Further, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech 2025- 26 has announced extension of the Jal Jeevan Mission until 2028 with an enhanced total outlay, Somanna said. The Centre is implementing the Jal Jeevan Mission in partnership with states, to provide potable water to every rural household of the country, through functional tap water connection at a service level of 55 litres per capita per day (lpcd), of prescribed quality, on regular and long-term basis. Water being a state subject, the responsibility of planning, approval, implementation, operation, and maintenance of drinking water supply schemes, lies with state/ UT governments, he said, adding that states/ UTs have been advised, through numerous review meetings, field visits, etc., to ensure the functionality of tap water connections provided inter alia including quality of water supplied as per JJM standards. In addition, up to 2 per cent of the allocation to states and UTs for Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance activities which inter-alia includes setting up and upgrading existing water quality laboratories at various levels, providing chemicals and consumables to laboratories, procurement of equipment, instruments, chemicals/reagents, glassware, consumables, procurement of Field Test Kits (FTKs)/H2S vials for chemical (including chloride) and bacteriological water quality surveillance at grass root level and NABL accreditation and recognition of laboratories. States have been advised to conduct water quality tests using FTKs/ bacteriological vials for common parameters along with area-specific parameters, including arsenic and fluorides, at schools, anganwadis, and Gram Panchayat levels for early identification of waterborne risks. States also have to identify and train 5 women from the local community to conduct water quality tests using FTKs/ bacteriological vials at the Gram Panchayat level, the minister said. Moreover, states and UTs have also 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, he added.