Centre seeks to reward all Jal Jeevan Projects by year’s end

Source: The post is based on the article “Centre seeks to reward all Jal Jeevan Projects by year’s end” published in Livemint on 23rd July 2022.

What is the News?

The Government of India seeks to award work for the entire Jal Jeevan Mission project to contractors by the end of this year, as it aims to provide safe tap water to all rural households by 2024.

What is the Jal Jeevan Mission?

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What is the progress of the Jal Jeevan Mission?

At the announcement of the Jal Jeevan Mission in 2019, out of 192.7 million households, only 32.3 million (or 17%) households had tap water connections. Currently, the mission has reached more than 51% of rural households.

In Goa, Haryana, Telangana, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Puducherry, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, every rural household has tap water supplies.

However, nearly half of rural households with infrastructural challenges and large funding requirements remain to be covered. 

Moreover, with the new requirement that gram panchayats confirm that all households in their villages have received water supply, only 2% of the villages have been certified so far to have tap water connections in all houses.

Is there a funding problem with the mission?

The government has so far spent just over 25% of the total allocation to provide tap water supplies. Hence, funding for the mission will not be a problem considering that three-fourths of the budget was still to be used.