The government aims to provide tap water supply to every rural household by 2024

The Jal Jeevan Mission has achieved another milestone of providing tap water to every home in 100 districts in the country. Chamba, an Aspirational District of Himachal Pradesh, became the 100th ‘Har Ghar Jal’ (Water in Every Home) District on Friday.

Chamba is the fifth aspirational district to become ‘Har Ghar Jal’, said the Ministry of Jal Shakti.

The other four Har Ghar Jal Aspirational districts are: Bhadradri Kothgudem, Jayashankar Bhupalpalli, Komram Bheem Asifabad (all in Telangana) and Mewat in Haryana.

The ministry said that the Jal Jeevan Mission is on track to fulfill the government’s resolve to provide tap water supply to every rural household by 2024.

At the announcement of the Mission on August 15, 2019, out of 19.27 crore households in India, only 3.23 crore (17%) had tap water connections. Today, 100 districts, 1,138 blocks, 66,328 Gram Panchayats and 1,36,803 villages have become ‘Har Ghar Jal’.

In Goa, Haryana, Telangana, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Puducherry, Dadar & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, every rural household has tap water supply. Many more states like Punjab (99%), Himachal Pradesh (92.5%), Gujarat (92%) and Bihar (90%) are on the verge of becoming ‘Har Ghar Jal’ in 2022, the Ministry of Jal Shakti said.

An amount of Rs 3.60 lakh Crore has been allocated for the mission so far, with Rs 60,000 crore being set aside in Union Budget 2022-23 to provide tap water to 3.8 Crore households.

In addition to this, in 2021-22, Rs 26,940 crore have been allocated to States as 15th Finance Commission tied grant for water & sanitation to Rural Local Bodies/ PRIs. There is an assured funding of Rs 1,42,084 crore for the next five years i.e. up to 2025-26.