Nagaland: Only 22% households have tap water supply

Our Reporter
Dimapur, July 14 (EMN): Nagaland is one the worst performing states in terms of households with tap water supply, as only 81,859 out of the total 3,85,699 homes in the state are enjoying the facility, which is only 22%.

Meanwhile, Goa, Telangana, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Puducherry have achieved 100% tap water connection, according to Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) report.

As per the JJM dashboard, among the north-eastern states, Nagaland, Assam and Meghalaya have below 25% households with tap water supply — Nagaland with 21.22%, Assam- 13.72% and Meghalaya- 20.2 %.

However in terms of “status of schools with tap water supply (as on date)”, Nagaland reported 1,795 schools with tap water out of 1,990, achieving 90.20% coverage.

The report maintained that the project had achieved a milestone of providing tap water supply to every household in one lakh villages across India in a short period of 23 months. At the time of launching this ambitious programme, only 3.23 crore (17%) out of 18.94 crore rural households in country had tap water connections.

Despite Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown disruptions, Jal Jeevan Mission managed to provide 4.49 crore tap water connections during 23 months and had also made 50 thousand Gram Panchayats ‘Har Ghar Jal’ by providing tap water supply to every household in these panchayats.

At present, 71 districts, 824 blocks, 50,309 Gram Panchayats and 1, 00,275 villages have achieved the target of ‘Har Ghar Jal’, the report stated.

The report further maintained that to achieve this mammoth goal of providing tap water supply to every rural household in five years, INR 3.60 lakh crore had been allocated by the government.

In 2020-21, an amount of INR 11,000 crore was allocated to the states/ UTs. For 2021-22, i.e. current financial year, a four-fold increase in fund allocation had been approved by the Union Minister Jal Shakti. In just three months, INR 8,891 crore had been drawn by the states/UTs based on the fund utilisation and requirement proposed under their annual action plans (AAPs).

“JJM’s aim is to ensure that every household irrespective of its socio-economic condition has tap water supply. The JJM is built on the principle of ‘no one is left out’ ensuring poorest of the poor, weaker and marginalised sections of society – those unserved so far, get assured potable tap water supply in their homes. Assured availability of drinking water in homes will save the women and young girls of centuries old drudgery faced by them across rural India,” an update from the Ministry of Jal Shakti read.