Centre’s Jal Jeevan Mission gets international endorsement
Ravi S Singh
New Delhi, July 16
The Centre’s flagship programme, ‘Har Ghar Jal’ has got international endorsement with Nobel laureate Professor Michael Kremer appreciating its implementation and assuring his collaboration in it.
Prof Kremer met officers of Union Jal Shakti Ministry’s Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), which implements Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) under Har Ghar Jal programme. He appreciated its implementation in India which is geographically big and diverse.
Its implementation in some states and UTs, like in the desert areas of Rajasthan and mountainous terrain of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and north-eastern States is challenging.
An officer of the department quoted Prof Kremer to have said “‘Har Ghar Jal’ programme plays a crucial role in improving health parameters especially among children,” during his interaction.
He assured of collaboration with regard to safe storage of water, new and cost-effective water treatment technologies and impact studies on tap water availability in villages.
JJM seeks to provide every rural household in the country with piped drinking water by 2024.
Prof Kremer is an American economist who was jointly awarded Nobel Prize for the year 2019 for experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.
His interest in JJM as an economist is in the context of his field of study and research focused on mitigating poverty in the world.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is progenitor of the JJM, has said at various forays that besides providing the citizenry with the basic infrastructure and amenities like water, it was conceptualized to ensure ease of living and raising the living standards of people.
Also, it would help the people, especially the women folk, to find energy and time to employ themselves in fruitful economic ventures to upgrade their economic status like being part of burgeoning Self Help Groups(SHGs), cooperative set ups, etc.
Besides, the JJM has been dovetailed with the goal to better health standards. The government is ensuring toilets in every households under “Swachh Bharat Mission”. Hence, tap water to households would help in upkeep of sanitation.
The JJM was announced from the ramparts of the Red Fort by Prime Minister Modi on August 15, 2019. It is implemented in partnership with states/ UTs.
At the time of its announcement, out of total 18.93 crore rural households, only 3.23 crore (17%) households had access to tap water connection. Thus, the remaining 15.70 crore families were dependant on river, well, pond, stand post and spring for their daily water needs.
The Jal Shakti Ministry’s data says that in the intervening about 35 months, JJM has provided over 6.56 crore new tap water connections.
Presently, over 51% of the rural population in the country are getting potable water.
