The Rashtriya Jal Jeevan Mission, Ministry of Water Power, Government of India has released the first consignment of Rs 1,184.860 crore to the state to provide safe and potable drinking water to all rural families of Madhya Pradesh. Rs. 5,116.790 crore has been allocated to Madhya Pradesh for the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission in the year 2021-22. Union Minister of Water Power Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat was also present in the meeting with the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat took part in the detailed review meeting held in two rounds with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan. During the review, the Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh assured that he would regularly review the plan and implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission and instead of completing the work in the year 2024 announced by the Prime Minister, the Madhya Pradesh government would ensure tap-water connections and by the year 2023, every rural household will be assured of drinking water supply. Consequently, despite Covid-19 pandemic in 2020–21, Madhya Pradesh gave an extraordinary performance and provided water to 19.89 lakh rura families with new Nal-Jal connections.
There are 1.23 crore rural households in Madhya Pradesh, of which 38.29 lakh (31.1pc) households now have tap water supply. The state plans to reach the halfway coverage mark by providing more than 22 lakh tap-water connections by March 2022. Plans are also afoot to focus on 3,731 Piped Water Supply (PWS) villages in 7 districts which, on an average, have less than 150 domestic connections, making these villages ‘Har Ghar Jal’ Yojana. During the Annual Action Plan (2021-22) discussion, the state government has been advised to work at a faster pace, so that tap water can be provided in about 42 percent of the villages, which are still without PWS. This work can be started fast as the average number of taps provided in these non-PWS villages is less than the average number of remaining taps provided in PWS villages.
The State has also been advised to increase coverage in priority areas like majority of SC/ST settlements, water quality affected villages, drought prone areas, aspirational districts, PVTG settlements etc.
Madhya Pradesh has started focusing on various aspects of water quality to ensure ‘clean drinking water’ to all. Currently Madhya Pradesh has 155 water testing laboratories, out of which 32 have NABL accreditation. The state has started emphasizing on testing of drinking water to remove bacterial and chemical contamination and plans to get NABL accreditation for 23 out of 51 district laboratories in 2021-22. Five people are trained in each village, using field test kits to test drinking water quality at source as well as distribution points. Testing of the quality of water in villages has been started by the local people along with the awareness campaign on various aspects of water quality, sanitation, safe water etc. in the state, with the help of field testing kits. If the quality of drinking water is not up to the mark, they inform the Sarpanch or the local Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) officials to take corrective action.
During a discussion with state PHED officials recently, the Rashtriya Jaljeevan Mission has asked to speed up implementation of water supply works, so that all schools, anganwadi centers and ashramshalas can be provided water for drinking, midday meal cooking, handwashing and use in toilets through safe pipes of tap connections.
Along with this, an allocation grant of Rs.10 thousand 700 crores includes an outstanding grant of Rs.5,116.78 crores in the year 2021-22 and Rs.191.61 crores available with the state government and total assured fund availability for the implementation of JJM in the state. With the availability of this fund, the state will be able to accelerate the implementation of various planned activities to provide tap water to rural households this year.
The Prime Minister had made an announcement of Jal Jeevan Mission from the Red Fort on August 15, 2019. Accordingly, implementation is being done in partnership with states / centers to provide tap-water connections to every rural household in the country by the year 2024. The total budget for Jal Jeevan Mission in the year 2021-22 is Rs 50 thousand crores. The 15th Finance Commission has provided funds for water and cleanliness to PRIs with its own resources and Rs 26 thousand 940 crore. This year more than Rs 1 lakh crore will be invested in rural drinking water supply sector, which will create new employment opportunities and give a boost to the rural economy.