10.50 lakh households in J&K already covered
Jammu Tawi, February 13: Jammu Kashmir UT has made remarkable progress under the Jal Jeevan Mission that provides for safe and adequate drinking water through individual functional household tap connections (FHTC) by August 2022.
The J&K administration has set a target to cover all the 20 districts of UT by September 2022 under this ambitious mission. As per the data available on the dashboard of JJM, out of total 18.35 lakh households, about 5.75 lakh households have functional tap water connections.
Now after two years of hard work, a total of 10.50 lakh (57.2%) households have tap water connections as J&K has provided 4.67 lakh new tap water connections in the last two years. Two districts namely Srinagar and Ganderbal which include 11 blocks, 383 panchayats and 1070 villages have achieved 100% coverage of tap water connections.
Apart from this, J&K has made other remarkable strides under the mission. 100% Rural Schools (23160), 100% Rural Anganwadi Centres (24163) and 100% Rural Health centres (3324) have been provided piped water connections. Besides, 1612 Gram Panchayat Buildings have been covered under piped Water Supply. Also, 5774 Pani Samitis have been constituted in J&K for active involvement of the local community in planning, monitoring and successful implementation of JJM.
This highly rewarding mission is being implemented in a decentralized manner following the ‘bottom up' approach, wherein the local village community plays a key role starting from planning to implementation and from management to operation and maintenance. The Centre has allocated 2747 crore during the year 2021-22 which is nearly four times than preceding year, 2020-21. J&K plans to achieve the target of HAR GHAR NAL HAR GHAR JAL by august 2022. In its 2nd phase, the UT Government has set a target to cover 11 districts, which includes 153 blocks, 1952 panchayats and 3254 villages with 4.93 lakh Functional Household Tap Connections. In the last phase of this mission, 7 districts involving 121 blocks, 1660 panchayats and 2623 villages shall be covered with 3.12 lakh functional household tap connections.
To ensure quality water supply, 97 water testing laboratories have been set up across Jammu and Kashmir. Government stresses not only on regular tap water supply but also on water quality. Water testing is important for monitoring the operation of water supply, verification of the safety of drinking water, investigation of disease outbreaks, validation process and preventive measures. Third-Party Monitor, Concurrent auditors, Media agency have been put in place for greater transparency, accountability and public awareness regarding JJM.
The project includes utilisation of upto 2% of total fund allocation for water quality monitoring and surveillance activities which primarily comprise water quality monitoring by the department through laboratory testing and water quality surveillance by the community through testing local water using field test kits (FTK). To empower the local community on water quality surveillance in J&K, five persons will be trained, especially women in each village from the local community, viz. ASHA workers, health workers, VWSC/Pani Samiti members, teachers, SHG members etc. To conduct water quality tests using FTK.
In spite of detrimental weather conditions and challenges of transportation in many areas in this difficult terrain, water supply work is in full swing to make provision of tap water supply in villages. The UT Government is committed to providing tap water connections to every household and capacity building of Water Quality Management- testing, monitoring and surveillance. Improved SDG of J&K in NITI Aayog's report is the testimony of the government's commitment to ensure safe water supply, sustainability of the source water supply system, along with interdepartmental coordination is significant for the effective implementation of the project.
In order to give a push to the effective implementation of the Mission in J&K, a full-fledged Mission Directorate and Programme Management Unit has been established in the UT.
Moreover, to fast track the pace of work on the JJM and to overcome certain hitches in the fulfilment of procedural formalities, revised modalities have been approved by the Administrative Council of the J&K Government recently.
