Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation Stone for Manipur Water Supply Project on July 23 through video conferencing. The state’s governor and chief minister of Manipur together with his cabinet colleagues, MPs and MLAs are expected to join the programme from Imphal.
The Govt of India initiated the Jal Jeevan Mission to provide safe and adequate quantity drinking water to every rural household of the country by 2024 with the motto ‘Har Ghar Jal’. The programme also implements source sustainability measures as mandatory elements, such as recharge and reuse through greywater management, water conservation and rainwater harvesting.
The Jal Jeevan Mission is based on a community approach to water and has information, education and communication as its key components towards creating a people’s movement for the commodity.
Of the 190 million households in India, only 24 per cent have freshwater household tap connections (FHTCs). The mission aims to provide over 140 million households with FHTC through a partnership with all stakeholders including inter alia the state governments, panchayat raj (village self-government) institutions and local communities.
The Central Govt has provided funds under the Jal Jeevan Mission to Manipur for FHTCs to cover 1,185 habitations with 142,749 households. The state government has planned to cover the remaining households through additional sources of funding including the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MDoNER).
An externally funded project, the Manipur Water Supply project was designed to provide FHTCs to remaining households in the Greater Imphal Planning area, 25 towns and for 1,731 rural habitations covering 280,756 households in the state’s 16 districts. The Manipur Water Supply Project is an important component of the efforts of the state government to achieve the goal of Har Ghar Jal. The project outlay for the project is about 30.54 billion with a loan component funded by the international financial institution, the New Development Bank.