Panaji: Goa has become the first state of the country to have 100 per cent tap water connections in rural areas covering 2.30 lakh households, the Jal Shakti Ministry said on Friday. Goa is the first ‘Har Ghar Jal’ state in the country. The government’s Jal Jeevan Mission aims to provide piped water to all rural households by 2024. It aims to improve the water availability system to rural communities in order to bring quality of life and bring ‘ease-of-living’.
The Chief Minister of Goa, Pramod Sawant announced that all rural homes in Goa now have a tap water supply. The Jal Shakti Ministry said, “Goa has earned itself the unique distinction of becoming first ‘Har Ghar Jal’ state in the country as it successfully provides 100 per cent functional household tap connections (FHTCs) in the rural areas covering 2.30 lakh rural households,”
The Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in June wrote to Sawant expressing happiness on the state’s annual action plan to provide 100 per cent tap water connections in rural areas by 2021. The North Goa and South Goa households are fully saturated with assured piped water supply through tap connections. Both consist of 1.65 lakh rural households and 98,000 rural households in 191 gram panchayats respectively.
Goa has immense water testing facilities, it is making it better by state in the process of getting 14 water quality testing laboratories accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). These testing are mostly carried by the villages themselves after Jal Jeevan Mission mandates training. The five persons in every village, especially women, in using field test kits are trained so that water can be tested there as per the statement.
The statement also mentioned, “Having achieved universal access, the state now plans for a sensor-based service delivery monitoring system so as to monitor the functionality of water supply i.e. potable water in adequate quantity and of prescribed quality being provided to every rural household on a regular and long-term basis”.