"No State Today With Less Than 30% Coverage Of Har Ghar Jal": Vini Mahajan

One of the biggest accomplishments of the Jal Jeevan Mission was bringing piped water access to 84% of government schools in rural India, she said.

Under the central government's ambitious Jal Jeevan Mission, which promises to provide every rural household with piped water, nearly eight states and union territories have already achieved the 'Har Ghar Jal' status. There is no state today with less than 30 per cent coverage, said Vini Mahajan, secretary in the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, in an interview. She added that the focus now is on 13 states that account for the majority of the balance of work, and one of the biggest accomplishments of the programme was bringing piped water access to 84% of government schools in rural India.

Here are edited excerpts from the interview:

When the Jal Shakti ministry was formed in 2019, there were speculations over its working, considering water is a State subject. The goal itself was seen as ambitious, as the coverage of households with piped water was less than 20%. What has been the progress of the programme so far?

Under the constitution of India, water is a State subject. Different states have approached it in different ways and have had different priorities. When PM Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day address in 2019, said that the country would move forward at speed and scale, and would ensure drinking water to every rural household, the states of the country were in very different places. There were states with less than 1% coverage, and there were states that had gone up to 99%. The agroclimatic conditions are different in states, with some of them being water-stressed and others having ample water but contaminated with the presence of arsenic and fluoride in large parts of the country. So, the challenge was to get to every house in every village. There are 26 lakh villages in the country, and the number of rural households is estimated at 19.4 crore. When we started on August 15, 2019, there were 3.23 crore rural households in the country that had reported access to piped water supply. The task was humongous, but the good thing is that the program saw a combination of factors come together to result in some amazing outcomes in a short period. These factors started with political will, starting from the highest levels to going down to villages. Village communities were made to sync with this vision. There was huge funding made available as per requirement. We are talking about an order of Rs 3.6 lakh crore that was expected in 2019. States have participated with their share too. There was a need to engage with communities and foster good partnerships. We are proud that coverage of less than 17% in 2019 is now over coverage of 60%. In this short span of time, over 8.5 crore rural households have received tap connections. These figures are like giving the whole population of the USA tap water connections, or year after year, covering Japan. And, it is not about the tap alone, as the program says there will be regular water at a minimum quantity, which is 55 litres per person every day, that will meet the quality norms.