Boost To Tap Water Supply In Maharashtra's Rural Areas: Centre Allocates Rs 7,064 Crore To State Under Jal Jeevan Mission

In a big push to tap water supply in the rural households in Maharashtra, the Centre has increased the grant-in-aid in 2021-22 to the state under the Jal Jeevan Mission to Rs 7,064.41 Crore, which was Rs. 1,828.92 Crores in 2020-21.

Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, while approving this four-fold increase in allocation of funds, has assured full assistance to Maharashtra for ensuring tap water supply in every rural home by 2024.

At the start of the mission in 2019, out of a total of 19.20 crore rural households in the country, only 3.23 crore (17 per cent) had tap water supply.

During the last 21 months, despite the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns disruptions, the Jal Jeevan Mission has been implemented with speed and 4.27 Crore households have been provided with piped water connections, the Jal Shakti Ministry said in a statement.

With this increase in coverage by 22 per cent, 7.51 crore (39.12 per cent) rural households across the country presently have tap water supply.

Goa, Telangana, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Puducherry have achieved 100 per cent household tap connection in the rural areas.

When the mission was launched in August 2019, 48.43 lakh (34.02 per cent) rural households had tap water supply in Maharashtra. In the subsequent 21 months, 42.86 lakh households in the state have been provided tap water connection.

In 2021-22, the state has planned to provide tap water connections to 27.45 lakh households, followed by 18.72 lakh connections in 2022-23, and 5.14 lakh connections in 2023-24 to achieve tap water supply to every rural household.

The water supply work to provide tap water connection has not yet started in 29,417 villages in Maharashtra.

Shekhawat has written a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, emphasising the work of providing tap connections should start in all the villages so that the state can provide tap water supply to every household by 2024.

He has urged the state to recover the pace of implementation, which was 1.59 lakh tap water connections per month in the last quarter of 2020-21, which has dropped to about 9,800 tap water connections in April and May.