The central government on Monday informed the Rajya Sabha that Haryana has become a ‘Har Ghar Jal state’ as all the 30.41 lakh rural households in the state have tap water supply in their homes.
“Out of 19.39 crore rural households in the country, 11.12 crore (57.36 per cent) households are reported to have tap water supply in their homes as on February 9 this year,” Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti Prahlad Singh Patel told the Upper House while giving a written reply to a query.
At the time of the announcement of the Jal Jeevan Mission, 3.23 crore (17 per cent) rural households were reported to have tap water connections, the minister said, adding “more than 7.88 crore rural households have been provided with tap water connections since the announcement of JJM as reported by states and the Union territories (UTs).
“Haryana State has become ‘Har Ghar Jal state’, as all the 30.41 lakh rural households in the state have tap water supply in their homes,” Patel said.
The minister also mentioned that the Government of India is implementing Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) – Har Ghar Jal, since August 2019, in partnership with states, to make provision for potable tap water supply in adequate quantity, of prescribed quality and on regular and long-term basis to every rural household by 2024.
“Under Jal Jeevan Mission, as per existing guidelines, Bureau of Indian Standards’ IS:10500 standard is to be adopted for ensuring safe drinking water supply,” added the minister while replying to the question raised by Kartikeya Sharma.
The MoS also said, “under JJM, while allocating the funds to states and UTs, 10 per cent weightage is given to the population residing in habitations affected by chemical contaminants.”
“States and UTs have been advised to plan and implement piped water supply schemes of bulk water transfer based on safe water sources such as surface water sources or alternative safe groundwater sources for the villages with water quality,” the Minister said.
“Since, planning, implementation and commissioning of piped water supply scheme based on a safe water source may take time, purely as an interim measure, states and UTs have been advised to install community water purification plants (CWPPs), especially in Arsenic and Fluoride affected habitations to provide potable water to every household at the rate of 8-10 litre per capita per day (lpcd) to meet their drinking and cooking requirements.”
States and UTs have been advised to undertake testing of water quality on a periodic basis such as once in a year for chemical and physical parameters, and twice a year for bacteriological parameters and take remedial action wherever necessary, to ensure that the water supplied to households is of prescribed quality, said the MoS.
“To enable states and 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 45.04 lakh water samples have been tested in the water testing laboratories and 79.68 lakh water samples using Field Testing Kits, during 2022-23,” said Patel.
As reported by states and UTs, as of date, there are 2,076 drinking water quality testing laboratories at different levels in state, district, sub-division and block levels in the country said Patel.
To encourage water quality testing to ensure a potable drinking water supply, states and UTs have opened water quality testing laboratories to the general public for testing of their water samples at a nominal rate.
States and UTs have been advised to identify and train five persons preferably women from every village to conduct water quality testing using FTKs and bacteriological vials at the village level and report the same on the WQMIS portal. So far, as reported by states and UTs, the Minister said, about 18.18 lakh women have been trained.
In line with the operational guidelines for the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission, this department through a 3rd party agency undertakes an assessment of the functionality of tap connections provided to rural households as well as public institutions like schools and Anganwadi centres.
“Last such assessment have been carried out in 2021-22 and according to that, about 79 per cent of the surveyed household wherein female members used to fetch water prior to the installation of the household tap water connection, reported a reduction in drudgery in the collection of water after the installation of the tap connections,” said the MoS.
Further, he added, about 26 per cent of the surveyed households reported improvement in attendance of school-going girls.
