New Delhi: Around 5.33 crore houses in rural areas have not been covered yet under the Centre’s ambitious mission to provide tap water connection to every house in every village of the country by 2024.
The situation is worst in Rajasthan, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
According to the data provided by the government, in the last four-and-a-half years, under the Jal Jeevan Mission-‘Har Ghar Jal’, tap water was supplied to 13,91,70,516 (13.91 crore) rural houses, while on 15 August 2019, the number of households with such tap water connections was only 3,23,62,838 (3.23 crore).
The total number of houses in rural areas of the country is 19,25,17,015 (19.25 crore), out of which tap water connections have been installed in 13,91,70,516 (13.91 crore) houses till 25 December 2023.
The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India has provided this data in response to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The Centre has set a target of supplying tap water to every village household in the country by 2024, for which the ‘Har Ghar Jal’ scheme is being implemented in partnership with states.
According to the reply provided by the ministry, drinking water is a state subject and planning, design, approval and implementation of drinking water supply schemes is up to the states.
The Government of India has supported the states in this effort by providing technical and financial assistance.
Till August 15, 2019, only 16.81 per cent of the villages in the country had tap water in their homes, the proportion of which has now increased to 72.29 per cent by December 25, 2023. But about 28 per cent of the houses in rural areas are still waiting for tap water, the reply to the RTI query showed.
Under the ‘Har Ghar Jal’ campaign, the status of tap connections in houses in rural areas in Jharkhand, Rajasthan and West Bengal is the worst. While 47.57 per cent houses in Jharkhand have tap connections, only 45.33 and 40.69 per cent houses have tap connections in Rajasthan and West Bengal, respectively.
A total of 10,68,07,678 (10.68 crore) houses have been provided tap connections in the last four-and-a-half years since the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission, according to the reply.
During the last five years, crores of rupees have been spent by the government to provide tap water connections in rural areas across the country.
The total amount spent on providing tap water connection was Rs 9,951 crore in 2019-20, Rs 10,916 crore in 2020-2021, Rs 40,010 crore in 2021-22, Rs 54,744 crore in 2022-23 and Rs 47,293 crore in 2023-24.
According to the information received from the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, under the mission, tap connections have been provided to every household in rural areas of nine states and Union Territories.
The states and Union Territories with 100 per cent tap connections comprise Goa, Andaman and Nicobar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Haryana, Telangana, Puducherry, Gujarat, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.
The states and Union Territories where more than 75 per cent tap connections have been installed in rural areas include Mizoram (98.35 per cent), Arunachal Pradesh (97.83 per cent, Bihar (96.42 per cent), Ladakh (90.12 per cent), Sikkim (88.54 per cent), Uttarakhand (87.79 per cent), Nagaland (82.82 per cent), Maharashtra (82.64 per cent), Tamil Nadu (78.59 per cent), Manipur (77.73 per cent), Jammu and Kashmir (75.64 per cent) and Tripura (75.25 per cent).
Chhattisgarh has 73.35 per cent tap water connections, Meghalaya (72.81 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (72.69 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (72.37 per cent), Karnataka (71.73 per cent), Odisha (69.20 per cent), Assam (68.25 per cent), Lakshadweep (62.10 per cent ), Madhya Pradesh (59.36 per cent) and Kerala (51.87 per cent).
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