Water supply and sanitation are State subjects. To supplement the efforts of States, Govt. of India provides technical and financial assistance.
To make provision of potable tap water supply to every rural household of the country by 2024, Government of India in partnership with States is implementing Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) – Har Ghar Jal, since August, 2019, with an estimated outlay of Rs. 3.60 lakh Crore. As on 19.12.2022, out of 19.36 Crore rural households in the country, 10.75 Crore (55.54%) householdsare reported to have tap water supply in their homes.
Further, as reported by States/ UTs, as on 12.12.2022, out of 16.97 lakh rural habitations in the country, 13.07 lakh [77%] have provision of potable drinking water with more than 40 litre per capita per day (lpcd), 3.64 lakh [21.5%] rural habitations with less than 40 lpcd with sources at a reasonable distance and 0.26 lakh [1.5%] rural habitations are reported to have water quality issues in drinking water sources.
To make rural areas of the country open defecation free (ODF) by providing access to toilets to all rural households,Govt. of India had launched for Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) in 2014. Under the programme, during the period from2014-15 to 2019-20, a total amount of about Rs.1.09 lakh crore (Central plus State shares) has beenutilized.Under SBM (G), 10 Crore individual household toilets have been constructed and as reported by States/ UTs, 100% rural households have access to toilets. Further, to sustain the ODF status of villages and to cover all villages with Solid and Liquid Waste Management by 2024-25, SBM (G)-2.0 is under implementation in partnership with States, with an estimated outlay of Rs. 1.40 lakh Croresince April 2020.
In addition, to ensure water supply and sanitation services in villages, 15th Finance Commission tied grant amounting Rs. 11,698.37 Crore [42%] for 2022-23 is made available to RLBs/ PRIs as on 19.12.2022.
Under JJM, provision has been made for technological interventions such as solar energy based stand-alone water supply systems for scattered/ isolated/ tribal villages, Community Water Purification Plants (CWPP) based on Arsenic, Fluoride, Iron and other contaminant removal units in groundwater contaminated areas, cold deserts/ hard rock/ hilly/ coastal areas, use of technology such as smart metering, geo-tagging of assets, etc. in planning and monitoring for efficient implementation.
National Jal Jeevan Mission in partnership with the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) launched a ‘Smart water supply measurement and monitoring system’ for water supply in rural areas via an ICT Grand Challenge. As on date, sensor based IoT system has been implemented at 118 different locations across the country, on pilot basis to measure and monitor drinking water supply on real-time basis. IoT based AI/ ML driven sensors used for online water quality parameters detection in subsurface and drinking water. Further, in partnership with Invest India, Department of Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT), an innovation challenge to bring innovative, modular, and cost-effective solution to develop portable water quality testing devices, is underway.
To bring focus on water supply, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), thus to improve public health, a nation-wide Water Quality Management Information System (WQMIS) has been launched on by using field testing kits as well as water quality testing in laboratories. The data is uploaded, analyzed and in case of quality issues, local authorities are alerted to take up immediate remedial action.
To bring transparency and effective monitoring, a ‘JJM dashboard’ has been created, which provides State/ UT, district and village-wise progress as well as status of provision of tap water supply to rural homes. The dashboard can be accessed at :https://ejalshakti.gov.in/jjmreport/JJMIndia.aspx
A Technical Committee under the chairmanship of Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to Government of India has also been set up to examine and recommend various innovations and water & sanitation related new technologies, which can be used in providing potable tap water supply to every home. So far, the committee has considered 184 innovative technologies and 165 R&D proposals and has accepted 25 innovative technologies and 8 R&D proposals for funding.
This Department under SBM (G), had organized a Start- up Grand Challenge to scout innovative technologies and scalable solutions for solid and liquid waste management challenges in rural areas. In this initiative, 372 technologies had applied, out of which 43 were selected for final presentation and top 6 were selected and awarded during the Swachh Bharat Diwas celebration on 2nd October, 2022.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Prahlad Singh Patel in a written reply in Lok Sabha on Thursday.
