From Source to Tap, Every Water Scheme Will Be Digitally Tracked: Kamal Kishore Soan, JJM Mission Director

Our first objective is to complete all the ongoing schemes. Currently, there are approximately 6 lakh schemes underway. In terms of scale, we are covering around 2.64 lakh panchayats and more than 20 crore rural families, which means we are catering to the requirements of nearly 80 crore people.

Earlier, people were dependent on hand pumps and had to queue up to collect water. Now, we are providing water directly to every household. This has empowered society, particularly women, who earlier had to travel long distances to fetch water. In some cases, they had to travel more than 10 kilometres. Our aspiration is to make that distance zero. Everyone should be able to get water at home without having to travel long distances.

We are providing 55 litres of water per capita per day, and importantly, this is treated water. Earlier, people were getting water through hand pumps, but it was not necessarily treated. Now, our mission is to provide treated water to every household.

In some parts of the country, panchayats have also started providing 24x7 water services. Until recently, we could hardly imagine 24x7 water supply in rural areas, as it was largely associated with urban areas. But today, there are very good examples of villages providing round-the-clock water supply, which can also be verified through ground-level assessments.

Two things are particularly important here. First, the infrastructure we are creating is sufficient to provide 24x7 water services; no additional resources are required. What is required is capacity building and discipline in managing the system.

Second, when water flows continuously through the pipes, the risk of contamination is reduced. If people receive fresh water regularly, they have less reason to store it. Once water is stored, the possibility of contamination increases. Our aspiration is therefore to provide fresh water regularly, as per people's requirements, and we are working towards that.

The water table is very important for ensuring sustainable drinking-water services, and recharge of water sources is equally important.

Within the Ministry of Jal Shakti, there are two departments: the Department of Water Resources and the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Our sister department has been focusing on Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari to conserve and save as much rainwater as possible and maintain groundwater levels.

Similarly, under the rural employment programme administered by the Ministry of Rural Development, guidelines have been issued for the utilisation of available resources. Around 65% of the resources can be used in critical areas and 40% in semi-critical areas for addressing these concerns.

So, various departments are working together to focus on the sustainability of water resources.

Keeping that point in view, we have come forward with the idea of the Sujalam Bharat platform, where we are mapping every detail scheme-wise, right from the source to the tap. This will put us in a position to track every scheme as well as individual tap connections.

We want to ensure that every tap connection is functional. It should not be a situation where the tap exists but there is no water supply. Our purpose is to address all such issues.

We have also introduced Jal Seva Aankalan. Earlier, we used to conduct surveys through third-party agencies, covering a sample of around 25,000–27,000 villages. In a country with more than 6 lakh villages, that was not a sufficient sample size.

Therefore, we introduced Jal Seva Aankalan. We designed a form and sent it to the Gram Panchayats, asking them to report whether they were receiving sufficient water services.

But it is not only the Gram Panchayat that provides the information. The Gram Panchayat has to obtain the details from the Gram Sabha, because the Gram Sabha is the body through which we can get actual ground-level feedback.

We have completed this exercise in more than 1.17 lakh Gram Panchayats. The exercise covers a large number of villages within these panchayats.

The information collected through this exercise is then sent to the District Collector. The Collector is now aware of the shortcomings in a particular village and is responsible for addressing those issues.

There is, of course, the question of resources. If resources are available through convergence with other schemes, the District Collector can address the issues through the technical support team. If resources are not available, the issue is escalated to the state government.

This way, the state government becomes aware of the issues at the Gram Panchayat level through the District Collector. Once problems are identified in this manner, we ask the states to ensure that they are addressed.

Water is a state subject, so our role is primarily to provide hand-holding and support. We ask the states to address the issues identified by Gram Panchayats and communicated through the District Collector.

For instance, if a Gram Panchayat reports erratic power supply, that issue has to be addressed by the state. Similarly, if there is a requirement for human-resource support, the state has to address it.

The first step was therefore to identify the problems. This is a very new experience, and we hope that in the coming years we will be able to stabilise the system as an annual exercise.

Going forward, every panchayat will digitally report the shortcomings in water services to the District Collector and the state government.

When we started the Jal Jeevan Mission, we identified areas affected by different types of contamination with the support of the states. We adopted two strategies.

First, we wanted to provide an immediate solution through Community Water Purification Plants (CWPPs) for the affected population. But our ultimate objective was to provide them with a sustainable source of treated water.

That is possible through surface-water schemes. Therefore, wherever we have provided CWPPs as an immediate solution, our next step is to provide a surface-water-based supply.

Around 50% of rural households in the country are now being shifted to surface-water sources. This will also address the concern about the sustainability of water sources.

When surface water is available from rivers and other perennial sources, it can provide a more sustainable alternative to dependence on groundwater, particularly in areas where groundwater quality or availability is a concern.

When the Jal Jeevan Mission started, the plan was to have around 15% of rural households served through surface-water schemes. That share has now increased to around 50%.

This shift is important because surface-water schemes can improve the sustainability of the water supply. If water is available regularly from rivers and other perennial sources, we can address some of the concerns related to source sustainability.

More and more states are therefore working towards shifting their rural water-supply systems to surface-water sources.