Guwahati, June 2/–/ The Assam government is aiming to provide potable water to every household by the end of 2024 with the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) making rapid progress in the state.
Notably, Assam now has 50 percent functional household tap connections (FHTCs) under JJM.
State public health engineering department (PHED) minister Jayanta Malla Baruah on Thursday chaired a meeting for the orientation of newly recruited Class III and Class IV employees in PHED here and expressed confidence that potable water would be provided to each and every household in the state by the year 2024.
“A total number of 34, 01,097 households out of 67, 95,311 households in Assam now have access to potable drinking water. The Mission is relentlessly working to complete its target in Assam,” Baruah said.
The minister claimed that despite challenges in regard to the FHTC coverage initially, in the last couple of years, the state has been able to cope up with the expected progress.
“The state has shown considerable progress in setting benchmarks, including forming village water and sanitation committees, training various stakeholders and villages where human resources are identified and skilled for operations and maintenance,” Baruah said.
It may be mentioned that since independence, households in Assam had only 1.64 percent tap water connections.
However, in the past few years, the proportion skyrocketed to 50.05 percent after Prime Minister Narendra Modi initiated the Jal Jeevan Mission in August 2019.