A webinar was organized by Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Jal Shakti with the Sector Partners selected for National Jal Jeevan Mission (NJJM). Additional Secretary &Mission Director, NJJMwas the keynote speaker. Sector Partners are expected to play a key role in supporting the implementation of JJM by working closely with the National Mission/ States.

In the webinar, Additional Secretary & Mission Director, NJJM explained the objective and philosophy of the programme in detail. Sector Partners were urged to work with the mission with responsible and responsive approach to holistically address the challenges, viz. depleting water sources, increasing water quality-issues,in-village infrastructure, Operation & Maintenance (O&M), lack of resource efficiency, competing water demands from various sectors, etc.

Sector Partners are expected to play a key role in supporting the implementation of JJM by working closely with the National Mission/ States in the areas of programme management, Information, Education and Communication (IEC) strategies, community mobilization, capacity building and participatory training programme, identifying successful models for replication, documenting best practices, carry out social audit, facilitate in organizing workshops, conferences, etc. Also, the trained resource of the Sector Partner may work as Master Trainers in the field to train and engage with the community at village/ habitation level.

Sector Partners to submit their Annual and Quarter-wise Plan up to 2024 highlighting the activities to be carried out at different levels, viz. National, State and District.

Earlier, the mission had sought Expression of Interestfromvarious agencies/ organizationsviz. UN agencies, NGOs, trusts, etc. working in water sector. In response, a total of 330 applications received from various organizations expressing their keen interest in becoming Sector Partners andjoining hands with the mission to make meaningful contribution. Afterscreening of the applications based on their past experience of working in rural areas and themes related to water supply, 175 organizations were shortlisted as Sector Partners for the Mission.

Announced by Prime Minister on 15^th August, 2019, Jal Jeevan Mission is under implementation in partnership with States to provide tap water connections to every rural household in the country by 2024. At the time of announcement, about 3.23 Crore rural households (17%) were having tap water connections. Since then, despite CoVid-19 pandemic, more than 4.17 Crore rural households have been provided with new tap water connections. As a result, more than 7.41 Crore (38.6%) rural households in the country are getting assured tap water in their homes.

To translate the vision of Prime Minister ‘SabkaSaath, Sabka Vikas’ on the ground, focus under Jal Jeevan Mission is on ensuring that ‘no one is left out’ and as a result, every home in 61 districts, 732 blocks, and 89,248 villages have started getting assure watersupply.

The motto of Jal Jeevan Mission is “Building Partnership and Changing Lives.”To make water everyone’s business, the mission strives to build partnership and work together with various institutions/ individuals to achieve drinking water security in rural areas. The Mission aims to empower the local village community in managing their resources, operating and maintaining the infrastructure created and ensuring quality services as custodians of water supply infrastructure.

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