SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir has reported that 15.64 lakh of its 19.26 lakh rural households — or 81.22 per cent — now have tap water connections at home, the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation told Parliament on Thursday. The Union territory added 9.89 lakh rural household connections under the Jal Jeevan Mission since August 2019, when only 5.75 lakh rural households had piped water.
The figures were included in a detailed statement and annexures laid before the Lok Sabha in response to a starred question on investment in water and sanitation. The department said the Jal Jeevan Mission national outlay stood at about Rs 2.08 lakh crore as central share and that the central portion of the budget has been almost fully utilised so far.
Urban water access in Jammu and Kashmir also improved: of 9,80,232 urban households, 7,53,187 now have household tap connections, giving a city and town coverage rate of 76.84 per cent, the ministry said.
Sanitation gains in the Union territory are significant as well. Under the rural Swachh Bharat Mission, Jammu and Kashmir has constructed 14,29,056 individual household latrines and 6,131 community sanitary complexes. In urban areas, the Union territory reported 51,246 individual household latrines and 3,451 community and public toilet seats built under the Swachh Bharat Mission urban programme.
Waste management roll-out in rural Jammu and Kashmir has reached 6,182 villages covered with liquid waste management arrangements, the ministry added. Nationally, more than 5.40 lakh villages have been provided such liquid waste management facilities under the phase two of the rural sanitation programme.
The statement also set the J and K numbers in a national context. Since August 2019, the Jal Jeevan Mission has supplied tap connections to some 12.52 crore additional rural households across India, taking the national tally to over 15.75 crore rural households with piped water, or roughly 81.37 per cent of the country’s 19.36 crore rural households. The ministry said innovative approaches such as solar stand-alone water systems for scattered and hard-to-reach habitations and community water purification plants for contamination hotspots have been deployed under the mission.
On sanitation, the Government said that from 2014 onwards nearly 12 crore individual household latrines and 2.66 lakh community sanitary complexes have been constructed nationwide. The urban AMRUT and AMRUT 2.0 programmes have also advanced water supply and sewerage projects, with thousands of projects sanctioned and substantial central releases to cities for sewerage and septage management.
The ministry highlighted that a technical committee has reviewed more than 240 innovative technologies and recommended 32 for use in water and sanitation service delivery. It reiterated that water supply and sanitation remain State subjects and that central support is provided through funding, technical assistance and convergence with programmes such as MGNREGS and district and local resources.
