Bhubaneswar: The State Government requires Rs.6,000 crore under Jal Jeevan Mission during 2021-22 for implementation of the annual action plan.
The Union Government is finalizing the annual action plans for the States while Odisha is planning the saturation of functional piped water supply connection to every rural household by 2024 and requires more funds to implement the flagship scheme.
Jal Jeevan Mission aims at providing functional household tap connections (FHTC) to every rural home by 2024.
The scheme enters its third year of implementation with a Central grant of Rs.50,011 crore in 2021-22.
While Odisha is seeking Rs.6000 crore in 2021-22, it requires more funds during 2022-23 and 2023-24, said sources.
The National Jal Jeevan Mission of Ministry of Jal Shakti has already rolled out the annual plan exercise with States from Friday.
Finalization of the State’s annual plan will be taken up on April 13 by a committee chaired by Secretary Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DoDWS) and Members from different Central Ministries and NITI Aayog.
The committee will do a rigorous scrutiny of the proposed annual action plan (AAP) prepared by the State before finalizing the same.
Thereafter, funds will be released throughout the year and regular field visits, review meetings are held to ensure implementation of the plan to achieve the Jal Jeevan Mission goal.
This year is a very critical year for JJM, which requires intensive planning based on rigorous data analysis, capacity of states and Union Territories (UT) to execute the work based on last two year’s progress, their preparedness.
States and UTs are to accord priority to water quality- affected areas, villages in drought prone and desert areas, Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe majority villages, 60 JE-AES affected and 117 Aspirational districts and Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana villages to provide all households with tap water connection in a time-bound manner.
In addition to Rs.50,000 crore allocation for JJM, there is also Rs. 26,940 crore assured fund available under the 15th Finance Commission tied-grants to rural local bodies for water & sanitation, matching State share and externally aided projects.
Thus, in 2021-22, more than Rs. 1 lakh crore is planned to be invested in the country on ensuring tap water supply to rural homes.
This kind of investment is likely to continue over three years to achieve Har Ghar Jal.
The State Action Plan is prepared with an objective to provide 100 per cent households with tap water connections and achieve overall drinking water security.
This is the master plan with detailed information on number of schemes to be retrofitted/ new schemes to achieve saturation along with timelines to initiate and complete the commission of the schemes on ground.
It will also identify sources of convergence, invest in sensor-based IoT technology for real-time monitoring and measurement of water supply, firm up State O&;M policy, intensify IEC/ BCC, water quality monitoring and surveillance activities.