Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is under implementation in partnership with States/ UTs. The mission aims to provide household tap connection to every rural household of the country by 2024. JJM is a time-bound, mission-mode programme that focuses on service delivery at household level, i.e. water supply on regular and long-term basis in adequate quantity and of prescribed quality. The mission plans to holistically address the challenges, viz. depleting water sources, increasing water quality-issues, lack of in-village infrastructure, poor operation & maintenance, lack of resource efficiency and competing water demands from various sectors.
Jal Jeevan Mission Partnerships
The goal of the Jal Jeevan Mission is to improve the lives of people by ensuring potable water in their households. The mission is not just about creating physical infrastructure but also forging partnerships with various organizations for smooth implementation of JJM. Therefore, the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Jal Shakti has sought interest from foundations, trusts, NGOs, community based organizations (CBOs), VOs, etc. to work closely with the mission as ‘Sector Partner’. Organizations proactively working in the sectors such as water, sanitation and hygiene, natural resources management, community engagement, capacity building & awareness generation, education, health, tribal development, gender & equity with wide outreach and impact are expected to be associated with the mission.
The Sector Partner will provide support to Mission/ States by working in the broad areas of the mission including selection of implementation support agencies, forging partnership with state water and sanitation mission, to bring together academic institutions, NGOs, civil society, and assisting the states to adopt appropriate O&M mechanisms to ensure long term sustainability of sources with special focus on water quality. Further, the scope of work for Sector Partners shall also include providing capacity building support to different stakeholders; identification of successful models in community mobilization for replication, field visits to understand social inclusion and social audit/ monitoring under JJM.
The mission aims at capacity building of Gram Panchayat and/ or its sub-committee, i.e., Village Water & Sanitation Committee (VWSC)/ Paani Samiti on managerial, technical and financial aspects so that they can plan, manage, implement, operate and maintain the in-village water supply infrastructure. Communities are also to be enabled to take up surveillance of quality of water supplied by training five persons, preferably women, in every village for quality testing through field test kits (FTKs).
To take forward these activities, the role of organizations working in rural areas will be very vital especially in mobilizing the community as well as hand holding them. For the success of this life changing mission, it’s necessary that the Government and private/ corporate sector including voluntary & charity organizations join hands together to develop synergy for efficient outputs. To make water everyone’s business, the mission strives to build partnerships and work together with different stakeholders to achieve drinking water security for all.
