Pace not enough to meet 2024 Jal Jeevan Mission target, shows data

Although the pace of providing piped water connection has increased drastically under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) compared to the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP), the speed has slowed down this financial year.

The government was able to outperform its targets in the last two years, but is likely to fall 60 per cent short of its mark this year. The government had envisaged that it would be able to provide piped water connections to 49 million households this financial year but was able to cover only 19.8 million households until March 24.

In terms of cumulative performance, while the government had covered 72.9 million households by 2020-21, against a target of 65.6 million, this year it will likely be able to provide tap connections to 92.7 million households against the 10.41 million target — its first miss since the start of the JJM programme.

A Business Standard analysis shows that if the government continues to perform at this pace, it is likely to miss the 2024 deadline to provide piped water connections to all households in the country. According to BS calculations, in that case it will take another five years to provide tap connections to all households in India.

Further analysis of JJM data shows that the larger states are slowing the government’s target. Uttar Pradesh, for instance, was only able to cover 8.3 per cent of its target for 2021-22; it installed 650,384 connections compared to the targeted 7.8 million. Rajasthan covered 501,462 households (target was 3 million). Kerala covered 622,942 households against its target of 2.9 million.

 

In terms of daily piped connections, Punjab was the best performer among larger states, averaging 694 connections per million households daily. Assam averaged 678 connections per million households; UP covered 68 connections per million households daily in 2021-22, Rajasthan 133, and Jharkhand 193.

While India has covered 48 per cent of the households until March 24, five states — Rajasthan, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and UP — had covered less than a quarter. And six states had succeeded in providing connections to all households.

Achieving 2022-23 targets may also be challenging. A Parliamentary Standing Committee report shows that even though the Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation had made a demand of Rs 91,258 crore, it was allocated Rs 60,000 crore for 2022-23. JJM could barely cover half of the target in 2021-22. Against the Budget estimate of Rs 50,000 crore, the government had spent Rs 28,238 crore until January 2022.