The stream of water falling from the tap in the courtyard of the house has changed the lives of women. Jal Jeevan Mission is not just a scheme to provide drinking water to every house. It is bringing a big change in the daily routine and life of women in remote areas and villages. Traditionally, in villages, the responsibility of arranging water for drinking and other needs in the house rests on women. Due to lack of access to water at home, they have to collect water for the whole family every day from hand pumps, public taps, wells or other sources. This daily laborious and time-consuming work becomes difficult during rains and extreme heat. In many areas, due to the drying up of water sources in summer, there is a compulsion to bring water from far away. Arranging water for the family becomes a daily struggle. Many hours of the day of women are spent in this work.
Jal Jeevan Mission, fulfilling the dream of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to provide tap water to every house, is providing relief to women from many problems along with drinking water. Due to availability of clean and safe drinking water at home, they have become free from many worries. Now they do not have to spend a lot of labour and time to get water every day. Due to this, they are getting more time for other household works, upbringing of children, farming and other livelihood works and they are able to give more attention and time to these works. By providing water supply at home throughout the year, Jal Jeevan Mission has removed the problem of drinking water during continuous rains and summers. The quality of water is affected due to the water level going down in summers and continuous rains in monsoon. There is a risk of skin diseases due to poor quality drinking water and use of bad water for disposal. Jal Jeevan Mission has also removed these health hazards.
Through Jal Jeevan Mission, 55 litres of water is being supplied to every household per person every day. Due to easy and adequate availability of water at home, women are also getting water for their ‘kitchen garden’ (baadi). For this, they no longer have to spend extra time and labour. Making good use of the used water, she is irrigating the vegetables planted in her garden. This work of hers is also opening the door to nutrition for the family.
More than 79 percent of the work of Jal Jeevan Mission to provide tap water to every household in Chhattisgarh has been completed. Drinking water is being supplied through pipeline to 39 lakh 63 thousand 700 households in the state. Since the launch of the mission, tap connections have been provided to about 36 lakh 44 thousand new households. There are 4142 such villages in the state where 100 percent households are getting tap water. More than 77 percent of the work has been completed in 19 districts under Jal Jeevan Mission. To provide tap water to every household, 98 percent of the mission has been completed in Dhamtari district, 94 percent in Raipur, 89 percent in Rajnandgaon, 88 percent in Janjgir-Champa, 87 percent in Durg and Mungeli, 86 percent in Balod and 85 percent in Gariaband and Sakti.
Under the mission, 84 percent work has been completed in Bemetara, 83 percent in Khairagarh-Chhuikhadan-Gandai and Bastar, 82 percent in Kabirdham and Mahasamund, 81 percent in Raigarh, 79 percent in Kondagaon, 78 percent in Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi and more than 77 percent work has been completed in Dantewada and Balodabazar-Bhatapara district. Work on 71 multi-village schemes is in progress to supply clean and safe drinking water in villages facing the problem of saline water, presence of heavy elements in groundwater or falling water level. Through these, surface (river) water will be supplied for drinking water to more than one million houses in 3234 villages. The state government has made a provision of Rs 4500 crore as state share in the budget of the current financial year for the works of Jal Jeevan Mission.