With 45 percent of India’s households yet to get access to running water, the government is on overdrive to achieve its targets under the Jal Jeevan Mission by the end of 2024. But connections will be meaningless if these households have no groundwater to draw up to. This is because India's water needs are largely met by groundwater.

As per the Jal Jeevan Mission data, over 5.75 lakh villages out of 6 lakh villages in India, have tap water connection. And from that, only 33 percent of total villages have access to Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) as per government data.

A fully functional tap water connection is defined as a household getting at least 55 litres per capita per day of drinking water all throughout the year. The Jal ministry data suggest 2 lakh out 5.75 lakh villages get regular water and for rest the functionality is less than 90 percent.

To better this number, the government has ramped up financial support -- and funds released to states have jumped four-fold since 2019. Estimates suggest India needs around 20 lakh crore rupees in investments required to bridge the expected water supply gap by 2030, as per a report by Niti Aayog.

Yusuf Kabir, WASH Specialist, UNICEF, Maharashtra said, “This is a watershed year in terms of public investment in the water supply and sanitation and hygiene in India. And no country's government has so far invested so much money, to ensure improved water supply and sanitation to the rural population as well as the urban population."

Yusuf Kabir, WASH Specialist, UNICEF, Maharashtra

But experts say that the real solution to this problem of taps running dry is to conserve, and replenish groundwater reserves. Yusuf Kabir, WASH Specialist, UNICEF, Maharashtra said, "80 percent of the water supply schemes are groundwater based, but that extraction rate compared to agriculture or industry is nothing. Jal Jeevan Mission does not bring any threat to the groundwater, but the groundwater being the source we need to work really on the source protection and so strengthening of the groundwater. So, that functionality part is very critical.”

While the government's efforts are important, a localised approach is much more critical. That's where not-for-profit organisations like the Raah Foundation come in. The organisation has been working with villages and tribal areas in Maharashtra's Jawhar and Mokhada regions... and wants to give water security to at least 150 villages by 2030.

Sarika Kulkarni, Founder of Raah Foundation, said, “We have created a model which is very easily replicable to scale up the whole project. We want to focus on improvement of source and on demand management to kind of create that entire holistic end-to-end situation where the tap never runs dry.”

Sarika Kulkarni, Founder of Raah Foundation

Raah Foundation is among the many organisations that have been working relentlessly in the tribal belt of Palghar area in Maharashtra to ensure water requirements in these regions are met - from building check dams to cleaning existing check dams to replenishing wells among other water conservation measures.

Even before the government started implementing the Jal Jeevan Mission, efforts from various organisations were undertaken in these region. Kulkarni added, “Community-level participation is critical in conserving water.” She added, Raah Foundation helped create community-level water governance committees, which are gender neutral, and these committees actually ensure that water is regulated and used very judiciously and we build their capacity.”

Tukaram, a farmer residing in Maharashtra's Jawhar Taluka, said, “We have a malhar committee. If the water levels drop, all villagers take a call on saving water and ensuring that water is used for survival and no excess water is used. Even if that means crop damage."

Tukaram

He is among the many villagers in the region who at one point traveled to cities looking for livelihood, that is not the case anymore. But he is well aware, if water levels are not maintained, the livelihood of the entire village is threatened.

Meanwhile, some kilometres away at Chandrapur village, Madu Sakharam has a different experience. He said, “In my lifetime, I have seen water struggles from having to travel 5-10 kms for water to now – where there is a water source close by." "...But the challenge is that the water supply is not regular.”

Madu Sakharam

Meanwhile, he pins his hope on NGOs like Raah Foundation and not on the government to address their woes. While in his village many leave and travel to the city for work due to water shortage, he is optimistic that it will change in his lifetime.

The government understands these concerns which is why it is also working towards solving these community level issues. Under the Atal Bhujal Yojana Programme, the centre has conducted training sessions at 8,353 water-stressed Gram Panchayats in Haryana, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, to enhance skills related to water.

The aim is to ensure that the Jan Jeevan Mission does not become a meaningless exercise, with taps in every household, but very few that deliver water.

First Published:Jun 2, 2023 8:30 PM IST