Providing tap water
Kashmir is one such place in the world 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 huge water resources. And most of it is pure in form as the origin of this water is glaciers and snow. 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 in remote Kandi and hilly regions of Kashmir region people have to walk several kilometers daily to get potable water for their daily use.
However, the present administration too up the issue seriously and started to work on the the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) and roadmap to achieve 100 percent coverage of piped water supply by December 2022 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, 33.5% 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 2022, 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 covered for 100% piped water supply by June 2020. In the second phase, seven more districts will be covered by June 2021 and the remaining six districts shall be covered in the third phase ending December 2021.
However, mere providing of potable water does not suffice the common man’s interest. The Jal Shakti Department has to ensure that the piped water is safe for using it in the households.
The Jal Shakti department needs to ensure procurement of modern technologies to ensure that water is processed in such a way that it is cent percent fit for human use. The step is important as most of the households and schools have no purification facilities at the top end level.
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