Jal Jeevan Mission

Mahoba district of Uttar Pradesh has recently seen a spike in official tap water connections under the Jal Jeevan Mission Scheme, but there is often no actual supply of water flowing through them.

What is Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM)?

• JJM is a centrally sponsored scheme that aims at ensuring potable drinking water security in every rural household and public institution across India by 2024. 
• In collaboration with States and Union Territories (UTs), the Centre plans to provide a Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) to every rural household.
  • An FHTC household is one where at least 55 litres of potable water per person a day is made available to every household.

• Launched in 2019, the scheme plans develop reliable drinking water sources or augment existing sources to provide FHTC on a long-term basis to every rural household.
• The scheme envisages to develop bulk water transfer facilities, treatment plants and a robust in-village water distribution network.

Fund sharing:

• The fund-sharing pattern for Centre and States/UTs is 100% for UTs without a legislature, in a ratio of 90:10 for North Eastern and Himalayan States/UTs with legislatures and 50:50 for the remaining states.
• Under Support and Water Quality Monitoring System (WQMS) activities, the Centre-States/UTs funding share is 100% for all UTs; in a ratio of 90:10 for North Eastern and the Himalayan States and 60:40 for other States.

Issues with JJM:

• In villages that have been officially certified as having 100% coverage of FHTC, several households do not actually have taps.
• Even if some households have taps, they are not getting any water through them.
  • In the best-case scenario, such households get no more than 2 hours of water.
• All of these households are included in Uttar Pradesh’s official claim of 1.6 crore households which have functional tap connections, conveying the impression that they all have access to tap water.

Ref: Source