Jammu Kashmir Of 102.17 lakh rural houses, only 96.23 lakh have access to piped supply The scheme was launched by the Centre in April 2009 by modifying the accelerated rural water supply programme (ARWSP).
Vikas Sharma Jammu, January 22 Already struggling with poor piped water supply (PWS) in rural households, the state has also failed to prepare a five-year comprehensive water security action plan (WSAP), thereby affecting the supply of safe drinking water to rural households under the centrally-sponsored scheme National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP).
As per the data available, of the total 102.17 lakh rural households in Jammu and Kashmir, only 96.23 lakh people have access to piped drinking water from taps with the PWS connection.
Water security planning is required to optimise the use of water resources within the constraints of financial and human resources in order to meet basic needs, besides taking decisions with regard to water resources management, including investments.
Village water security plan (VWSP) includes the demographic, physical features, water sources and other details of the village, available drinking water infrastructure and water sources.
J&K is among the 21 states which have yet to prepare the same at all three levels.
The states are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Goa, HP, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, MP, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP and Uttarakhand.
These habitations were grappling with continuous depletion of groundwater due to successive drought, over-extraction, increase in contamination of the groundwater, shortage of surface water and pollution of surface water bodies.
The Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in March 2017 had made it clear to J&K that there would be no investment in new projects till the completion of the existing ones.
But in 2017-18, only 122 habitations with a population of 0.74 lakh were covered with access to safe drinking water.