Having access to water isn’t something we think about. After all, this has become accessible for most countries. Our homes have been built with a sink and some pipes that connect us to the precious fluid. Unfortunately, we also forgot that not everyone has this kind of luxury.
In India, for instance, some homes don’t have access to tap water. People have to walk and carry around heavy buckets in order to wash their dishes and clothes. Until fairly recently, many of them were required to work hard just to get access to water.
India’s Jal Jeevan Mission of tap water access has been a success. In fact, they are considered to be one of the great, unsung stories that people should know about. Not much has been shared about this story, but it’s high time that the rest of the world should know about them.
That’s because almost 79 million households finally have been given access to a tap water connection since they launched the program last August 2019. In the years that followed, they now have provided water to a total of 111 million, or 56 percent of rural households in India, which is a feat that no one has ever achieved for them in the past.
Governance in India is said to be quite different. Many have compared it to a strange old dance between legislating on behalf of both economic areas similar in net worth to Western Europe and rural areas that are considered to be the poorest in all of Asia.
The Jal Jeevan Mission had hopes to connecting every home to public water systems by the year 2024. Unfortunately, things weren’t always smooth-sailing for them. This initiative had to deal with barriers such as the recent pandemic. However, from a starting point of just 32.2 million rural households out of a registered 192 million, the program has seen a lot of coverage and success with hard work and perseverance.
11 crore tap connections!
The vision of our PM Sh. @narendramodi ji, the relentless pursuit of the goals set out for #JalJeevanMission by the ministry and the effort of our team on ground has made this mega milestone possible. #11CrHarGharJal
— Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (@gssjodhpur) January 25, 2023
This was a statement made by the union minister of the merged ministries of sanitation and drinking water as they celebrated their triumph after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the ‘mega milestone.’ They were able to fulfill their dream and while many are still waiting for the access, they may not have to wait too long because they are committed to fulfilling their goal.
In 2018, before Jal Jeevan started, just 49.5 percent of the country had access to safely managed drinking water. When compared to its neighboring country Bangladesh, the figures were even lower. The accomplishment has even been more impressive when you think that during the course of Jal Jeevan, India surpassed China when it comes to being the most populous nation ever in the world.
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