The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) – Har Ghar Jal, is being implemented since August, 2019, in partnership with States, to make provision of potable tap water supply in adequate quantity, of prescribed quality and on regular & long-term basis to rural households. The Government of India supports the States including Tamil Nadu by providing technical and financial assistance. Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, as per existing guidelines, Bureau of Indian Standards’ BIS:10500 standards are adopted as benchmark for quality of water being supplied through the piped water supply schemes. Drinking Water being a State subject, the responsibility of Planning, Approval, Implementation, Operation & Maintenance of drinking water supply schemes, including those under the Jal Jeevan Mission, is vested with State/UT Governments.

As per the Operational Guidelines, States/ UTs including Tamil Nadu can utilize up to 2% of their annual allocation of funds under JJM for Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance (WQM&S) activities, inter-alia, which includes setting up and strengthening of water quality testing laboratories, procurement of equipment, instruments, chemicals, glassware, consumables, hiring of skilled manpower, surveillance by community using field test kits (FTKs), awareness generation, educational programmes on water quality, accreditation/recognition of laboratories, etc. To enable States/ UTs to test water samples for water quality, and for sample collection, reporting, monitoring and surveillance of drinking water sources, an online JJM – Water Quality Management Information System (WQMIS) portal has been developed. The State–wise details of water quality test reported through WQMIS are available in public domain on JJM Dashboard and can also be accessed at: https://ejalshakti.gov.in/WQMIS/Main/report

In order to empower the communities to monitor the water quality States/ UTs have also been advised to identify and train 5 persons, preferably women, in every village to conduct water quality testing using Field Testing Kits (FTKs) at village level and report the same on the WQMIS portal. So far, as reported by States/UTs on WQMIS, as on date, more than 24.81 lakh women (including 62,898 in Tamil Nadu) have been trained for testing water using FTKs.

As reported by States/UTs, as on date, there are 2,182 drinking water quality testing laboratories (including 113 in Tamil Nadu) at different levels viz. State, district, sub-division and/ or block level in the country. To encourage water quality testing to ensure potable drinking water supply, States/ UTs have opened water quality testing laboratories to general public for testing of their water samples at a nominal rate.

As reported by States on JJM-IMIS, since the inception of JJM, 13,706 Arsenic affected, and 7,745 fluoride affected habitations have been reported to be covered with piped water supply schemes as on date. Further, there are 314 Arsenic and 251 Fluoride affected rural habitations in the country where the piped water supply schemes compliant to JJM standards are yet to be commissioned. However, all these habitations (314 for Arsenic and 251 for Fluoride) have been provided with safe drinking water through CWPPs/ IHPs purely as an interim measure. Thus, all habitation in rural area of the country are provided safe drinking water free from Arsenic and Fluoride contamination.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has done study on the potential benefits of the JJM, estimating that achieving its goals could save over 5.5 crore hours daily in rural areas, which are inter alia spent on collecting water, predominantly by women without the intervention of JJM. This time savings translates into economic benefits and an improved quality of life for rural families. Furthermore, the WHO has projected that providing safely managed drinking water to all households could prevent nearly 4,00,000 deaths from diarrheal diseases and 14 million Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) averted during the mission period. Adding to this, Nobel laureate Prof. Michael Kremer's research paper suggests that universal access to safe water could lead to a nearly 30% reduction in mortality among children under five years old, potentially saving 1,36,000 young lives each year.

The allocation of JJM Funds has given a weightage of 30% for the stated under Desert Development Programme (DDP), Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP), Hill Area Development Plan (HADP) and special category hill states in terms of rural areas.  The year-wise details of Central fund allocated, drawn and utilization reported by the State/ UTs under JJM since 2019-20 to 2024-25 (as on 17.03.2025) for making provision of safe drinking water through household tap water connection to rural households including in water stressed and drought-prone areas is at below.

Jal Jeevan Mission: Central fund allocated, drawn and reported utilization in 2019-20 to 2024-25

(Amount in Rs. Crore)

FY	Central Share				State Share Expenditure
	Opening Balance	Allocated Funds	Released Amount	Expenditure
2019-20	2,436.37	11,139.21	9,951.81	5,983.49	4090.79
2020-21	6,447.36	23,033.02	10,917.86	12,544.51	7,905.45
2021-22	4,825.92	92,308.77	40,009.77	25,326.67	18,226.18
2022-23	19,510.05	1,00,789.77	54,742.30	50,667.81	40,147.74
2023-24	23,584.58	1,32,936.83	69,885.01	82,295.58	69,219.37
2024-25*	11,180.11	69,926.68#	22,341.74	27,333.70	33,616.09

^*As on 17.03.2025      Source: JJM-IMIS   # restricted to utilization of Rs. 22,694 Cr. only

Apart from this, RLBs/ PRIs have been allocated Rs. 2,36,805 Crore rupees under 15^th Finance Commission out of which 60% tied grants amounting to Rs. 1,42,084 Crore is to be spent on 1) Drinking Water Supply and 2) Sanitation.

This information was provided by THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR JAL SHAKTI SHRI V. SOMANNA in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

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DHANYA SANAL K

(Lok Sabha US Q3238)

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