CHALLENGES UNDER JAL JEEVAN MISSION
New Delhi, Jul 24, 2025 : Since August 2019, Government of India in partnership with States is implementing Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) – Har Ghar Jal to make provision of potable water to every rural household of the country through functional tap water connection.
A number of steps have been taken to plan and implement JJM in the whole country with speed, inter alia including joint discussions and finalization of saturation plans and annual action plans (AAP) of States/ UTs, regular review of implementation, workshops/ conferences/ webinars for capacity building, training, knowledge sharing, field visits by multi-disciplinary teams to provide technical support, etc. A detailed Operational Guideline for the implementation of JJM; Margdarshika for Gram Panchayats & VWSCs to provide safe drinking water in rural households and Guidelines on a special campaign to provide piped water supply in Anganwadi centers, Ashramshalas and schools have been shared with States/ UTs to facilitate planning and implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission. For online monitoring, JJM–Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) and JJM–Dashboard has been put in place. Provision has also been made for transparent online financial management through Public Financial Management System (PFMS).
At the start of the Mission, only 3.23 Crore (16.7%) rural households were reported to have tap water connections. With concerted efforts from both Centre and States, under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) – Har Ghar Jal around 12.43 Crore additional rural households have been reported to have been provided with tap water connections. Thus, as on 21.07.2025, out of 19.36 Crore rural households in the country, more than 15.67 Crore (80.94%) households are reported to have tap water supply in their homes.
To achieve 100 per cent coverage through continued implementation of mission with focus on quality of infrastructure and Operation & Maintenance of rural piped water supply schemes for long term sustainability and citizen centric water service delivery, Hon'ble Finance Minister during her budget speech 2025-26 has announced extension of Jal Jeevan Mission until 2028 with enhanced total outlay. Accordingly, a proposal for continuation of Jal Jeevan Mission until 2028 with enhanced total outlay is under consideration of the Government.
States have informed that lack of dependable drinking water sources in water-stressed, drought prone and desert areas, presence of geo-genic contaminants in ground water, uneven geographical terrain, scattered rural habitations, delay in release of the matching State share in some States, lack of technical capacity with implementing agencies, Gram Panchayats and local communities to plan, manage, operate & maintain the water supply schemes, rising price of raw materials, delay in obtaining statutory/ other clearances, etc. are few of problems being faced in the implementation of the Mission.
To address the challenges holistically and overcome these, Government of India has taken a number of steps, inter alia including implementation of Special Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure through M/o Finance for financial assistance as 50-year interest free loan for capital investment projects; nomination of a nodal officer in the Department for coordinating with Central nodal Ministries/ Departments/ agencies to facilitate the States in obtaining Statutory/ other clearances; setting up of State Programme Management Units (SPMUs) and District Programme Management Units (DPMUs) and implementation of “Nal Jal Mitra Programme” for ensuring availability of skilled local persons at village level to bridge the gap in availability of technical skill sets and of HR for programme management;
Under the Mission, States have been advised for source recharging, viz. dedicated bore well recharge structures, rainwater recharge, rejuvenation of existing water bodies, reuse of greywater, etc., in convergence with other schemes such as MGNREGS, Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP), 15th Finance Commission tied grants to RLBs/ PRIs, State schemes, CSR funds, etc.
Further, Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain (JSA: CTR) campaign aiming to encourage water conservation at grass-root levels with people's participation was launched in 2019 in 256 water stressed districts of the country. Morever, recognizing the importance of sustainable water management especially for drinking water availability, JSA-CTR was implemented with the theme “Source Sustainability for Drinking Water” in 2023 and "Nari Shakti se Jal Shakti" in 2024. Similarly, JSA is being implemented with the theme “Peoples' Action for Water Conservation - Towards Intensified Community Connect” emphasizing the pivotal role of community in the field of water conservation.
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.