111 million families in India's villages still await potable tap water

A third of villages don't have piped supply infra, another third does, but tap provision work to households hasn't yet begun. Govt has promised to spend Rs 50,000 cr to expedite the scheme

The government of India revamped the National Rural Drinking Water Programme into Jal Jeevan Mission in 2019, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Independence Day, the target to provide tap drinking water to all households in the country by 2024. 

The scheme gathered pace after the announcement. The number of households with functional drinking water taps, which had grown from 22 million to 40 million in six years to 2019-20, has now grown to about 80 million in August 2021. The doubling period has shrunk from six years to 18 months. 

This achievement notwithstanding, the target from now on is a big one. These 80 million-odd households constitute only 41 per cent of rural families. 

There are another 78 million houses which fall in villages with piped infrastructure, but are still without tap water provision. Besides, another 34 million rural houses do not have piped water systems in the first place. 

From NRDWP to JJM: speed and speed-breaker

The parent programme of Jal Jeevan Mission, the National Rural Drinking Water Programme, was launched in 2009 with the aim of providing 55 litres of water per person per day to 35 per cent of rural households. 

But an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India found that by 2017, eight years after the launch, only 17 per cent of rural houses had benefited from the scheme. This meant that only half the target had been met. 

The Jal Jeevan Mission, announced a year after the CAG report was tabled in Parliament, expanded the ambit of the scheme to all rural households, and set a target year of 2024, coinciding with the general elections in India, when Narendra Modi will be fighting for his third term. 

After the JJM announcement, the pick-up in speed is visible. The rate of new tap connections, which had ranged between 2,000 and 10,000 per day till 2019-20, zoomed up to more than 88,000 taps in 2020-21. The Centre chipped in Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 11,000 crore in 2019-20 and 2020-21, respectively, twice the amount spent in the previous few years.

Government officials said that one reason for this speed is the use of groundwater. Household tap water systems can be developed quickly in such villages with the next 30-40 years in mind. 

“When water is available in the same village and does not have to be brought from elsewhere, it takes 6-10 months to provide the connection. We have crossed two years since JJM began,” a senior official said.

The scheme has benefited from past investments too. In areas where the scheme (including the NRDWP) had partly progressed, JJM has worked towards upgrading the existing supply systems, putting mechanisms for ground water recharge and ensuring supply to households that were left behind. 

However, the speed has mellowed down this year, despite a five-fold increase in central funding. In 2021-22 till August, the daily rate has gone down to 18,000, despite an allocation of Rs 50,000 crore for the scheme. 

Half of remaining target falls on three states

With close to 111 million houses still bereft of tap water, the scheme needs to expedite its implementation if the target has to be met within three years. The speed of implementation from here on needs to be better even than 2020-21, the best-performance year when 32 million taps were provided. 

Of the 111 million remaining households, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan account for nearly 50 million taps. The household coverage of potable drinking water in these states is 10.9 per cent, 12.2 per cent and 20.4 per cent, respectively. 

Among large states, Telangana (100 per cent), Haryana, Bihar and Punjab have been successful in providing tap water to more than 80 per cent of families in the states. 

According to government officials, there are legacy and governance issues in states such as Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. 

For UP, the size of the state itself is a challenge, and it lacks a full-fledged department to lead this initiative, which had added to the challenge, they said. In West Bengal, however, the word is that the scheme hasn't taken off for political reasons. 

“The differences are being settled, and we are seeing improvement in some states. For instance, Assam is adding 6,000-7,000 connections every day,” a senior official in the Jal Shakti ministry said.

UP too is gaining traction and the target is to get coverage in 60,000 villages by the end of this year. The Centre has released Rs 2,400 crore recently to the state, which is approaching state assembly polls in early 2022. 

Things are picking up in Tripura as well, according to sources, after the new chief secretary—an old hand in the water management sector, who comes with expertise—has taken charge.

The government is, however, concerned about smaller states, dealing with technical difficulties, which bigger states generally overcome easily. “We are discussing orientation of engineering level officers in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh. We are trying to overcome the challenges.”

States such as Bihar, which began expediting household tap water connections before the JJM, have the advantage of being early entrants. 

With over 86 per cent coverage, Bihar has capitalised funds from the Fourteenth Finance Commission and spent money from the Centre too. “They are not in need of additional allocation right now and have sufficient resources available with them,” the senior government official added. The quarterly plan shows that Bihar is on its way to complete 100 per cent achievement this fiscal.