Connecting every household
Water resources are needed for the survival of animal and plant life. These sources ensure the well being of the region as most of the economic activity has its origin from the usage of water.
Kashmir is a place which is bestowed with abundant water resources. Even today when most of the water bodies are witnessing huge pollution many of our water resources are usable for various purposes including drinking needs.
Many regions across Jammu region and Kashmir as a whole have abundant water resources. And most of it is pure in form as the origin of this water is glaciers and snow. Even in certain areas the ground water too is providing the much needed relief to the people as most of the ground water reserves too are good in quality.
However, most of the far off regions in this part of the world are not getting potable drinking water, making the lives of commoners miserable.
Despite the past governments promising potable water to all the households the claims remained confined to papers only. Even in remote Kandi and hilly areas of Kashmir region people have to walk several kilometers daily to get potable water for their daily use.
However, the administration has now accorded sanction to the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) and roadmap to achieve 100 percent coverage of piped water supply by December 2021 across Jammu & Kashmir aligning it to the National Mission of Jal Jeevan.
The objective of the mission is to provide Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) to every rural household with priority to desert/drought prone and border areas, schools, anganwadi and health centres etc. Under the mission, sustainability of water supply system shall be ensured besides empowerment and development of human resource in the sector so as to meet the demands of construction, plumbing, water quality management and other purposes.
Under the National Jal Jeevan Mission, every rural household of the country will be connected with piped water supply by 2024. At present, 30.5% of J&K’s rural households have piped water connections compared to the national average of 18%. Special focus will be laid under the mission to provide FHTC to remaining 11.12 lakh rural households out of 16.02 lakh in J&K as per Integrated Management of Information System (IMIS) data of JJM.
To achieve 100 percent coverage under JJM in a phased manner by December 2021, the PHE Department has carried out a detailed exercise to prepare District Water Security Plan through the District Water and Sanitation Mission headed by the concerned Deputy Commissioners.
In the initial phase, seven districts Poonch, Reasi, Samba, Srinagar, Ganderbal, Shopian and Pulwama were to be covered for 100% piped water supply. In the second phase, seven more districts were covered and the remaining six districts shall be covered in the third phase ending this month.
Though some hiccups are being witnessed in some areas but the mission of providing water supply to every house hold needs to be taken seriously and it must be ensured that the people’s needs are met.
KV Network
