A mid-term review meeting on planning and implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in Nagaland was held today, wherein Nagaland State officials presented the progress to the National Jal Jeevan Mission team. Jal Jeevan Mission is a flagship program of Government of India to provide Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) to every rural household of the country by 2024.The mission aims to improve the lives of rural people by providing safe drinking water to every rural home through household tap connections. The decentralized, demand-driven, community-managed water supply schemes at village/ habitation level is perceived as a transformational programme in drinking water sector.

1,351 villages out of 1,502 in Nagaland have Piped Water Supply (PWS) systems, through which3 lakhtap water connections can be provided. Thus, the retrofitting/ augmentation of such schemes will ensure the annual target of 1.47 lakh FHTCs. In the only aspirational district,Kiphire, 83 villages (75%) out of 111 villages have PWS. Further, out of 15,845 households in the district, 13,478 (85%) households have access to PWS and the remaining households will be provided tap connections. Stressing on the need for proper planning to be done to achieve the goal of the mission within the time frame with focus on retrofitting/ augmentation of existing water supply systems to provide tap water connections to remaining households, the senior officials advised the State Government officials to expedite the implementation.

Focus was given on the planning to be done at village level and Village Action Plan (VAP) of every village is to be prepared by dovetailing all available resources by convergence of different programmes viz. MGNREGS, SBM, 15^th Finance Commission Grants to PRIs, CAMPA funds, Local Area Development Funds, etc. It was highlighted to involve the local village community/ Gram Panchayats and or user groups in planning, implementation, management, operation and maintenance of water supply systems in villages to ensure long-term sustainability to achieve drinking water security. It was urged to start IEC campaign along with community mobilization in all villages. 

Under Jal Jeevan Mission, priority is being given on water quality surveillance through active participation of frontline functionaries as well as involving the local community. 5 persons especially women are being trainedin every village to use the Field Test Kits to test the quality of water.  Every source needs to be tested once every year for physical and chemical parameters and twice for bacteriological contamination. The State was advised to give priority to these areas as well as complete the accreditation of State and district laboratories in next 3-4 months and also to open those for public so that they can test the quality of water supplied at very nominal rate.

Under JJM, during 2020-21, Nagaland has been allocated an amount of ₹114.09 Crore, out of which ₹28.52 Crore has been released to the State. Further, under 15^th Finance Commission Grants to rural local bodies, Nagaland has been allocated ₹125 Crore in 2020-21, 50% of which is mandatorily to be utilized on drinking water supply &sanitation activities.

State was requested to ensure all the anganwadicentres and schools are provided piped water supply as part of the special 100-day campaign has been launched on 2^nd October, 2020, so that potable water is available in these institutions.

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