Jal Jeevan Mission: Here're the top five best and worst performers

Only 17% of rural households had tap water connections on August 15, 2019, the Ministry of Jal Shakti informed Parliament on July 28 this year

The Jal Jeevan Mission, launched in August 2019, aims to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual tap connections to all households in rural India by 2024.

Only 17 per cent of rural households had tap water connections on August 15, 2019, the Ministry of Jal Shakti informed Parliament on July 28 this year.

Uttar Pradesh (UP), which has been a laggard, has, however, performed better in recent days. The government covered 465,000 rural households (1.76 per cent) with tap water connections in 2019-20 and another 1.91 million households (7.24 per cent) in 2020-21. In the year of the second Covid-19 wave, coverage fell, with just 658,000 households (2.48 per cent) receiving tap water connections in 2021-22.

UP’s performance has improved in the current financial year (2022-23), with 1.63 million households covered (6.18 per cent) — and five months to go. 

But it has to catch up.

None of the 75 districts had covered more than 50 per cent of the households with tap water supply. In 54 of the 75 districts, less than 25 per cent of households had tap water supply. 

The lowest coverage is in Ayodhya district (6.73 per cent) and the highest in Baghpat (49.88 per cent). Six of the top 10 districts by tap water coverage are within the National Capital Region and therefore, beneficiaries of interstate regional planning and development in India’s largest urban agglomeration.

Sources: IndiaSpend, Jal Jeevan Mission