New Delhi: Haryana is geared to provide tap water connection to all rural households by December, 2022. The State provided 1.05 lakh tap connections during 2019-20 under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). Now the State Government is planning 100% coverage by December, 2022, ahead of the national goal by 2024-25. By doing so, Haryana will be among the leading states to accomplish the ambitious target of providing tap connection to each rural household.
Presenting their action plan to the Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation yesterday for achieving the goal of every household with tap water supply under the JJM, State officials said there are 28.94 lakh households in Haryana, out of which 18.83 lakh are already provided with Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTCs). Out of the remaining 10.11 lakh households, Haryana plans to provide tap connections in 7 lakh households by 2020-21.
During the current year, State is planning for 100% coverage of 1 district and 2,898 villages out of total 6,987 villages. More emphasis has been given to cover rural households in drought prone areas and aspirational districts. State is likely to get Rs 290 Crores as Central share under JJM for this financial year, which will be supplemented by same amount of State’s matching share. State is eligible for additional allocation based on physical and financial performance.
Out of 44 water testing laboratories, State plans NABL accreditation of 18 labs during current year. Field Testing Kits will be provided at community level for testing of water quality for taking corrective measures. State has planned to provide drinking water to all 35 quality-affected habitations.
In every Gram Panchayat, GP or their sub-committee i.e. Village Water & Sanitation Committees have been constituted for planning at village level. Village Action Plans have been carried out for villages, based on which the action plan has been finalized.
Dashboard of Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) has been recently launched by Chief Minister. It’s a dynamic platform, wherein the details of villages, tap connections, financial progress, etc. is monitored on real time basis.
During this testing time of CoVid-19 pandemic, such attempts to provide household tap connections in rural areas will definitely improve the ease of living especially the women and girls, reducing their drudgery, making them safe and lead a dignified life.
Government of India is implementing the ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ (JJM) in partnership with States to ensure every rural household in the country has FHTC for drinking water in adequate quantity of prescribed quality on regular and long-term basis at affordable service delivery charges leading to improvement in their living standards.
It’s the endeavour of the Central Government to provide tap connections in rural households on priority basis during prevailing CoVid-19 situation, so that rural people don’t have to go through the hardship of fetching water from public stand-posts and stand in long queue. Government intends to ensure the rural communities are safe from being infected amidst CoVid-19 pandemic by providing the poor and marginalized sections of the society water supply through tap connections inside their house premises, thereby averting visits to water stand-posts while observing social distancing norms. Advisories have been issued to States/ UTs to take up works related to drinking water on priority so as to achieve the twin objective of providing tap connections to rural households as well as creating job opportunities for local people and migrant workers.
Extensive exercise by consulting States/ UTs for the last 3 months were carried out wherein water supply schemes of every village was analyzed so as to provide tap connections in villages.
