Madhya Pradesh village celebrates ‘Jal Utsav’ to welcome tap water connection

Yes! The smile is for real for the four-year-old ‘Muskaan’. It’s a first time in her life she is seeing tap water connection in her household. As her mother prepares to worship the tap, she could barely wait for the ‘pooja’ to be over, and insists to open the tap to enjoy & feel the first gush of water. Finally, her patience paid off; With one swish of the tap, clean water gushed out & Muskaan bursts into giggles and claps. “I can drink water during my playtime without pestering my mother for it”- gleefully chirps Muskaan! This is how freedom & ‘ease of living’ looks like for the four-year-old girl. Muskaan’s mother reverberates the same happiness. For her, the tap water meant better health for her kids and ample quality time for herself.

Damhedi village of Anuppur District of Madhya Pradesh celebrated ‘Jal Utsav’ to welcome tap water connections in their households on 15th January, 2021. The village was decked up with rangolis and flower decorations & villagers were in their finest clothes & tribal accessories. The festivities included tribal songs, dance & music which filled the whole atmosphere with the spirit of joy. The village which mostly comprises of tribal population has suffered paucity of potable water in their area since ever. But now, it’s a double dip of celebration for them as the availability of tap water has provided ‘ease of living’ to the community as well as has brought their revered river Narmada to their homes. Women were seen worshipping and bowing before the tap, as a mark of respect to their river deity. “I feel blessed as the mother river, lovingly called ‘Maiyya’ (mother in local language) has come to my doorstep to bless me”- says a village lady.

Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), the flagship programme of Union Government is ensuring safe drinking water to every rural household of the country. Jal Jeevan Mission envisages adoption of participatory approach for ensuring safe and sustainable rural water supply for every household. In this light Madhya Pradesh Jal Nigam is implementing 58 Multi Village Schemes (MVS) in about 6,896 villages in 34 districts to ensure the availability of water for drinking and other domestic purposes throughout the year. To take the mission forward, Damhedi -1 Muti Village Rural Water Scheme in Pushprajgarh block became functional on 15th January, 2021. The MVS is located in Anuppur district, which consists of 74 villages.

Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) envisions that every rural household has drinking water supply in adequate quantity of prescribed quality on regular and long-term basis at affordable service delivery charges leading to improvement in living standards of rural communities. In Madhya Pradesh, to enhance the piped water coverage through tap water connections, the State Govt. has a robust plan to cover every rural household by 2024 so that the ‘Har Ghar Jal Gaon’ will be a reality of the rural Madhya Pradesh.