Itanagar: The target for providing clean tap water to every household in Arunachal Pradesh under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) has been advanced.
The government has decided to set December 2022 as the new target for achieving 100% coverage under the JJM in Arunachal instead of March 31, 2023.
The decision was taken during the 16th Apex Committee State Water & Sanitation Mission (SWSM) meeting under JJM held under the chairmanship of chief secretary Naresh Kumar at the civil secretariat here on Thursday.
Addressing the meeting which was also attended by Manoj Kumar Sahoo, director (JJM), Ministry of Jal Shakti, the chief secretary said Arunachal has so far achieved 38.07 % of the target under Har Ghar Jal Village as compared to the national average of 21.07% and the state’s achievement in terms of Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) coverage is 64.54 % as compared to the national average of 48.40%.
Approximately 53000 households are left to be connected under the FHTC, he said.
Going by the pace of the current coverage of the Jal Jeevan Mission, the chief secretary suggested that the PHE and Water Sanitation department should set December 31, 2022 as the new target.
In order to achieve the new target, it was decided that the members will meet every 45 days to review the status of the mission.
Jal Jeevan Mission is one of the most ambitious programmes of the Government of India envisioned to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections to all households in rural India by 2024.
However, in a major push for the people, the Arunachal Pradesh government had earlier taken it upon itself to achieve the target by March 31, 2023, a year ahead of the national target of 2024.
Meanwhile, the chief secretary while reviewing the physical plan and achievement of 2021-22 of JJM during the meeting felt that there is a dire need of a serious action plan with regard to drinking water supply connections at schools and Anganwadi Centres.
The total number of schools to be connected with water supply is 697 while 2277 Anganwadi Centres are yet to be connected with drinking water supply.
The chief secretary accordingly directed the PHE and Water Sanitation and panchayat raj institutions to explore the possibility of adopting projects like Egam Basar Nature Project on source rejuvenation in the districts.
The chief secretary also asked the PHE and Water Sanitation and the education department to work out on a plan where students of classes 5, 6 and 7 shall be taken to their nearest water treatment plants as a part of an exposure tour to know the water supply system.
In order to maintain the quality of the water, the chief secretary informed the JJM director that the state PHE and Water Sanitation department will obtain accreditation from the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) for the state laboratory and ten district laboratories within this year.
Among others, Planning commissioner P S Lokhande, education commissioner P Singla, PHE&WS secretary Rinchin Tashi, rural development secretary A Talwade, PHE chief engineer Toko Jyoti, JJM mission director, Arunachal Pradesh T Basar were present in the meeting.
