Total 2.66 lakh tap water connections have been provided in Nagpur district under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) since the Central Government announced the mission in 2019. The Modi Government’s ambitious Jal Jeevan Mission aims at providing safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections to every rural household in the country by 2024. “Total 3.65 lakh tap water connection has been sanctioned for Nagpur district under Jal Jeevan Mission in which we have achieved the target of 2.66 lakh connections so far,” Sanjeev Hemake, Deputy Engineer, Water Works Department, Nagpur Zilla Parishad told The Hitavada. Just 98,772 tap water connections are left in the district which we will achieve in this financial year, Hemake added.

 

The district administration under the tap water in every house project has started providing 55 liters of water per person per day as per the instructions of district collector. “We have established the infrastructure to provide 55 liters of water per person per day and earlier which was 40 liters in the district. The water supply has also started in many places as per the instructions,” said Hemake. The Maharashtra Government presented their Jal Jeevan Mission Annual Action Plan for the year 2020-21 recently to the Central Government. Maharashtra has 1.42 crore rural households, out of which 91 lakh (64%) are getting tap water supply. In 2020-21, Rs 1,828.92 crore Central fund was allocated to the State to provide assured tap water supply, out of which the State could draw only Rs 457 crore. In 2021-22, Maharashtra is likely to get about Rs 3,000 crore of Central fund for JJM. In 2020-21, the State has provided 37.15 lakh tap water connections in rural areas including 2.66 lakh connections in Nagpur district.

 

Among that State’s Rs 457 crore, Nagpur district received Rs 6 crore this year for infrastructure development, training of officials and employees etc which are utilised completely for the same, said Hemake. So far, 1 district, 20 blocks and 7,737 villages in Maharashtra have been declared ‘Har Ghar Jal’, which means every rural household has tap water supply.

 

The Annual Action Plan emphasises on drinking water source strengthening water supply work to provide household tap connections, greywater treatment and reuse, and operation and maintenance various support activities including training of stakeholders, community mobilisation, water quality surveillance and monitoring, strengthening of water testing laboratories etc. While talking about the training of plumbers and other employees for the infrastructure, Hemake said, “The administration has provided training to plumbers and other officials and employees for smooth implementation of the project.” He further said, “There are six water testing laboratories are available in Nagpur district for all talukas which are testing water quality as per the norms.”