ITANAGAR, 29 Oct: Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar emphasized on completing the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in the state within the stipulated time, ie, March 2023.
Reviewing the achievements during 2020-21 under the JJM and the state action plan for Har Ghar Jal during a meeting of the Apex Committee of the State Water & Sanitation Mission at the civil secretariat on Friday, the CS stressed on “giving priority to education, health and CHCs for providing drinking water supply.”
Accordingly, approval was granted to 2,390 schools, anganwadi centres, health centres, community centres, GP buildings, community toilets, and other government offices for providing drinking water supply.
The JJM envisions providing safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in rural India. However, in a major push, the Arunachal Pradesh government has taken it upon itself to achieve the target by 2023, a year ahead of the national target of 2024, to provide functional household tap connections (FHTC) across the state.
Out of the total target of 2,20,323 households, the achievement of FHTC stands at 51 percent, as per the report of the PHE department. Out of 5,553 villages, 5,471 have prepared village action plans, while 5,433 villages have formed village water and sanitation committees, and 212 implementation support agencies are engaged on the ground.
During the meeting, approval was granted to five pilot projects on rooftop rainwater harvesting at the government schools in Dirang, Longding, Khonsa and Changlang.
“The projects should be developed in such a manner that the students are made to learn from the projects on the importance and benefits of management and water conservation,” the CS said.
The members also took some important decisions on watershed management in critical districts like Tirap, Changlang and Longding.
In order to educate the people on water management and conservation, the chief secretary told the PHED to send 15-20 groups of women from each river basin of the state on exposure tours to different parts of the country which are renowned for their water management and conservation.
PHED Secretary Rinchin Tashi, Finance Secretary YW Ringu, Health Secretary P Parthiban, PHED&WS Chief Engineer (WZ) Toko Jyoti, JJM Mission Director T Basar and others were present at the meeting. (CS’ PR Cell)
