New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the Jal Jeevan Mission App and interacted with Gram Panchayats and village water and sanitation committees (VWSC) on the occasion 152nd birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Since the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission in 2019, five crore households have got water connection and now tap water is reaching every household in about 1.25 lakh villages, Modi said on Saturday, asserting that today’s India has done more work in just two years than what was done in seven decades.
Speaking after Interacting with gram panchayats and pani samitis/village water and sanitation committees (VWSC) on the Jal Jeevan Mission, Modi said the mission is not just about bringing water to people but it is also a decentralisation movement that is village and women-driven.
The Prime Minister said that the Jal Jeevan Mission has been empowering women of the country by saving their time and efforts which was earlier consumed in covering long distances to fetch drinking water.
“From the time of Independence till 2019, only three crore households in our country had access to tap water. Since the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission in 2019, five crore households were provided with water connections,” he said.
“Today, water is reaching every household in about 1.25 lakh villages in about 80 districts of the country. That is, today’s India has done more work in just two years than what was done in the last seven decades,” he said.
In aspirational districts, piped water connections have risen from 31 lakh to over 1.16 crore, the prime minister said.
Modi said it has to be ensured that the situation of bringing water to any part of the country through tankers or trains never arises.
The prime minister also launched the Rashtriya Jal Jeevan Kosh, where any individual, institution, corporate or philanthropist, be it in India or abroad, can contribute to help provide tap water connection in every rural household, school, anganwadi centre, ashramshala and other public institutions.
”Pani samitis” play a key role in planning, implementation, management, operation and maintenance of village water supply systems, thereby providing clean tap water to every household on a regular and long-term basis.
Out of over six lakh villages, pani samitis/VWSCs have been constituted in around 3.5 lakh villages. More than 7.1 lakh women have been trained to test the quality of water by using field test kits.