Lack of ‘sustainable water sources’ will thwart Jal Jeevan Mission: panel

A parliamentary committee has said that the objectives of the Jal Shakti Ministry’s flagship ₹8.69-lakh-crore Jal Jeevan Mission — that aims to provide consistent and potable water supply to all rural households — will remain “unfulfilled” if sustainable sources of water supply are not found.

This comes after an official in the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation — an arm of the Ministry — told the committee that despite taps under the scheme having been installed at many places, there was an “…issue of water availability due to shortage of sources” and that in some places “…water sources were being exhausted within a year or two”.

This prompted the committee to observe that “…the objective of providing water for the next 25-30 years under JJM will remain unfulfilled due to lack of source sustainability”. Sources include rivers, lakes, ponds or any natural pool.

The committee recommended that the Ministry implement ‘source to tap’ schemes, under which the entire chain of water supply such as the source of water, tank, supply, were accounted for. There are 6.83 lakh sanctioned schemes under the JJM.

The committee “note(d) with concern” that there was no information from the States on how many of these schemes were ‘source to tap’. The panel said it was “…of the view that to maintain a long-term steady supply of safe drinking water, source sustainability is of paramount importance otherwise assets created under JJM will come to naught after extinguishment of available sources”.

Govt. nod for extension

The Union Cabinet last week approved extending the JJM programme to 2028 and allocated additional funds to meet its target. A press note from the Ministry had noted that the programme’s focus will change “…from infrastructure creation to service delivery, supported by drinking water governance and institutional ecosystem for sustainable rural piped potable water supply”.

As of January 2026, the programme, which promised a minimum amount of daily potable water to every rural household in the country, was estimated to have spent ₹3.6 lakh crore since 2019 with the Centre pitching in ₹2.08 lakh crore.

The programme, originally envisioned to achieve 100% coverage by 2024, has been stuck at around 81% since 2025. As The Hindu has previously reported, covering the remaining 20% requires more money than has already been spent so far. The outlay for the scheme has now increased to ₹5 lakh crore, and the Centre’s share from now on until 2028 will only be about ₹1.5 lakh crore.

“To this end, a uniform national digital framework, namely ‘Sujalam Bharat’, shall be instituted, under which every village shall be assigned a unique Sujal Gaon/Service Area ID digitally mapping the complete drinking water supply system from source to tap,” a Ministry statement said.

From the baseline of 3.23 crore (17%) rural households with existing tap water connections in 2019, more than 12.56 crore additional rural households have been provided with tap water connections so far under JJM.