Parliament Question: Supply of Drinking Water in Rural Areas

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF JAL SHAKTI DEPARTMENT OF DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3220 ANSWERED ON 18/12/2025 SUPPLY OF DRINKING WATER IN RURAL AREAS 3220. SHRI BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO: SHRI LUMBARAM CHOUDHARY: Will the Minister of JAL SHAKTI be pleased to state: (a) the steps being taken by the Government to ensure the quality of drinking water supplied in rural areas; and (b) whether there are any States or districts lagging behind under the Jal Jeevan Mission as on date and if so, the details thereof along with the assistance being provided to them? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR JAL SHAKTI (SHRI V. SOMANNA) (a) & (b) The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) – Har Ghar Jal, was launched in August 2019, in partnership with States/ UTs to make provision of potable tap water supply in adequate quantity, of prescribed quality and on regular & long-term basis to rural households. Drinking Water being a State subject, the responsibility of Planning, Designing, Approval, Implementation, Operation & Maintenance of drinking water supply schemes, including those under the Jal Jeevan Mission, is vested with State/UT Governments. The Government of India supplements the efforts of the States by providing technical and financial assistance. Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, as per existing guidelines, Bureau of Indian Standards’ BIS:10500 standards are adopted as benchmark for quality of water being supplied through the water supply schemes. As per the Operational Guidelines, States/ UTs can utilize up to 2% of their annual allocation of funds under JJM for Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance (WQM&S) activities, inter-alia, which includes setting up and strengthening of water quality testing laboratories, procurement of equipment, instruments, chemicals, glassware, consumables, hiring of skilled manpower, surveillance by community using field test kits (FTKs), awareness generation, educational programmes on water quality, accreditation/recognition of laboratories, etc. As reported by States/UTs, as on date, there are 2,848 drinking water quality testing laboratories at different levels viz. State, regional, district, sub-division, block, mobile and/ or WTP facility laboratories. To encourage water quality testing to the rural community/ public, the States/ UTs have opened water quality testing laboratories to general public for testing of their water samples at a nominal rate. Page 1 of 2The Department released the "Handbook on Drinking Water Treatment Technologies" which was published in March 2023 and the "Concise Handbook for Monitoring Water Quality of Piped Drinking Water Supply to Rural Households" in December 2024. Both aim to guide field practitioners in effectively managing safe water supply system. For monitoring of coverage of tap connections in States/ UTs, this department has developed an online JJM dashboard which provides State/ UT, district and village-wise progress as well as status of provision of tap water supply to rural homes. Significant progress has been made in the country since the launch of Jal Jeevan Mission, towards enhancing access to tap water to rural households. At the start of Jal Jeevan Mission in August 2019, only 3.23 Crore (16.72%) rural households were reported to have tap water connections. So far, as reported by States/UTs, more than 12.52 crore additional rural households have been provided with tap water connections under JJM. Thus, as on 16.12.2025, out of 19.36 crore rural households in the country, more than 15.76 crore (81.42%) households are reported to have tap water supply in their homes. The state-wise and district-wise details of tap connections is in public domain and may be accessed at below link: https://ejalshakti.gov.in/jjmreport/JJMState.aspx ***** Page 2 of 2