JAL Arpan, an initiative under the Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0 aimed at strengthening community ownership of rural drinking water systems, was organised on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, the Ministry of Jal Shakti said on Saturday. The initiative was observed in more than 1,850 gram panchayats/villages across the country on Friday as part of special Gram Sabhas held on Gandhi Jayanti. It marked the formal handover of completed rural water supply schemes to Gram Panchayats and Village Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSCs), the Ministry said.

 

The completed schemes, successfully commissioned following the prescribed trial run period, were formally handed over to Gram Panchayats and VWSCs for operation, maintenance and long-term sustainability, it said. In a first, 346 Har Ghar Jal certificates were generated for eligible gram panchayats and villages and issued in regional languages through the Jal Arpan digital module, the ministry said.

 

The module now provides for generation of Har Ghar Jal certificates in Hindi, English and 17 other regional languages, including Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Jal Arpan activities included Jal Sankalp, Jal Bandhan, demonstrations on water quality testing using Field Test Kits (FTKs), awareness programmes and recognition of community contributors, the Ministry said. States and Union Territories also undertook activities related to water quality surveillance and monitoring, including post-monsoon water quality testing of sources to ensure the safety and reliability of drinking water services, it said. Community-led water quality monitoring is being strengthened through the active involvement of women, the Ministry said. Under the Sujalam Bharat initiative, 2,691 water supply assets, including around 700 sources, were geo-tagged across the country on the occasion.