The latest news reports quoting from NITI Aayog’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for providing tap drinking water to all household in J&K by 2024. It says that Jal Jeevan Mission aimed to provide safe drinking water to every house in J&K by 2024.
The deadline for accomplishing the task is in sheer contrast to what the Jammu and Kashmir administration has announced on April 21 that it was committed to the Union Jal Shakti Ministry to provide piped drinking water under Centre’s flagship Jal Jeevan Mission to every rural household by September 2022, much ahead of the national deadline.
This information was shared during a meeting of the national committee of the ministry to discuss the UT’s Jal Jeevan Mission Annual Action Plan for 2021-22 via Virtual mode.
NITI Aayog Index says that only 53 per cent of J&K’s rural population has access to adequate drinking water. And out of 18.16 lakh rural households in Jammu and Kashmir, only 5.75 lakh (31.7 per cent) households had piped water supply before the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) was launched. During the 21 months of JJM existence, 4.30 lakh (23.69 per cent) households have been provided tap water connections.
The J&K UT presented the annual action plan through videoconference in the last week of April 2021 wherein it committed that the UT Administration had planned 100% coverage by September 2022 ahead of national goal by 2024-25. By doing so, J&K would be a leading example to accomplish the ambitious target of providing a tap connection to each rural household. This way the Administration has attempted to garner applause for his high-level efficiency in achieving the target well in advance viz a viz the national goal set by the Centre.
According to another report, 10.05 lakh (55.7 per cent) rural households are getting tap water supply in Jammu and Kashmir. The government has planned to provide tap water connections to 4.91 lakh households in 2021-22 and further to 3.27 lakh households in 2022-23.
The UT administration has planned to provide drinking water to all 4 quality-affected habitations. Stress is being given on constitution of Village Water & Sanitation Committees in villages to mobilize the community to inculcate a sense of ownership. Village Action Plans have been carried out for villages, based on which the action plan has been finalized.
Further confusion, the same J&K Administration assured in May last year to provide drinking water to all household in Jammu and Kashmir by December 2022. The administration has announced three different deadlines on three different occasions for achieving safe potable to its cent per cent population. Such contradictory statements erode the credibility of the projects and their executors- the Administration in this case- in the eyes of the public which should be avoided.
