Only 12% rural households in Assam have tap water supply, 100% coverage in three years: Jal Shakti Ministry
About 799,000 households in rural Assam have tap water connections. This is a rise of 10 per cent in two years. The Jal Shakti ministry aims to provide 100 per cent of coverage in three years. It has increased the allocation amount to expedite the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission.
Children drinking water from a handpump. Photo: Unicef India
Only 12 per cent of households in rural Assam have access to tap water supply. In other words, of the total 6.33 million households, only 799,000 households have tap water supply in the state. This data was shared by the Ministry of Jal Shakti on June 19.
Interestingly, only 1.76 per cent (111,000) of the households in 25,335 villages of the state had tap water supply in 2019 at the time of launch of Jal Jeevan Mission, a scheme under Ministry of Jal Shakti that aims to provide safe piped drinking water to every rural household in the country by 2024.
As per the ministry’s data, 10.87 per cent (688,000) of households in the state have been provided tap water connections in the last 22 months. This makes the total rural household with tap water supply to 12.63 per cent (799,000).
The ministry aims to provide 100 per cent of coverage in the next three years. To achieve this task, the state has planned to provide tap water connections to 2.26 million households in 2021-22; 2.08 million households in 2022-23; and 1.32 million tap water connections in 2023-24.
Also Read: About 40% women in rural households work harder to fetch water in the COVID-19 lockdown
To provide clean tap water to every household, this year, the central government has allocated Rs 56,011.6 million grant to Assam under the Jal Jeevan Mission. This sum was Rs 16,085.1 million in 2020-21.
Earlier this year in February, Assam was one of the poorest performing states in the country in terms of tap water connection to rural households. Only 6.83 per cent of rural households in the state had tap water connection.
Also Read: In election-bound West Bengal, less than 7% rural households have tap water connection
Furthermore, only 2.22 per cent of anganwadis in the state had tap water supply — the lowest tap water coverage in the country. At 1,247, Assam reported the highest number of habitations affected by arsenic.