Karnataka Falls Short on Jal Jeevan Mission, 24.5 Lakh Rural Households Lack Tap Water
Bengaluru: Karnataka has failed to provide tap water connections to 24.5 lakh rural households, representing a significant 34% shortfall of the targeted 72.1 lakh, well past the critical March 2024 deadline under the Jal Jeevan Mission. This alarming revelation comes from a comprehensive Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report tabled in the state legislative assembly on Tuesday.
Audit Exposes Critical Gaps in Planning and Execution
The audit, which meticulously covered the period from 2019 to 2024 across seven districts, flagged severe deficiencies in planning, execution, financial management, and water quality monitoring. These systemic failures have fundamentally undermined the mission's core objective of ensuring Har Ghar Jal (water in every home).
At the state level, irregular participation by various departments severely affected convergence with other vital schemes such as the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) and the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana. Although some villages proactively proposed convergence strategies, none were effectively implemented, highlighting a disconnect between planning and action.
Delays and Poor Management Hamper Progress
Significant delays in project execution further exacerbated the poor outcomes. The audit report cited numerous instances of poor planning, including the awarding of contracts without ensuring land availability, flawed Detailed Project Reports (DPRs), and overburdened contractors. Shockingly, some projects were abandoned midway despite substantial expenditure, while others failed to take off for years, wasting precious resources and time.
The report also highlighted weak post-implementation management and an overdependence on groundwater sources, raising serious long-term sustainability concerns. "The state was heavily reliant on groundwater sources for water supply, posing the risk of unsustainability in the long run. The department's efforts to include sustainable measures such as recharge of groundwater through conservation and reuse of water resources, and grey water management, were inadequate," the report noted emphatically.
Institutional Weaknesses and Financial Underutilization
The audit uncovered several institutional weaknesses that crippled the mission's effectiveness:
- Key committees at the village, district, and state levels did not meet regularly, undermining governance.
- Village action plans remained incomplete, often missing critical components like source sustainability, groundwater data, and financial planning.
- Thirteen districts did not hold any meetings during the 2023-24 period, while five villages were wrongly declared ‘Har Ghar Jal’ compliant and 21 were shown as fully covered despite incomplete works.
- Karnataka received only 45% of the central outlay due to severe underutilization of funds, with spending on water quality monitoring plummeting from 50% in 2019-20 to a mere 2% in 2023-24.
Water Quality Crisis and Lab Deficiencies
A major concern raised by the audit is the dire state of water quality monitoring. Laboratories lacked the essential capacity to test for dangerous contaminants such as arsenic, and turnaround times for tests stretched up to 106 days against the prescribed 24-48 hours. An independent study revealed that only two out of 28 sampled villages met the required water quality standards, indicating a widespread public health risk.
Silver Linings: Social Benefits Amidst Failures
Despite the limited broader impact on public health and employment, the report acknowledged that the Jal Jeevan Mission did register gains on select social indicators. The mission helped ease the burden on women and contributed to reducing the dropout rate among upper primary school girls from 2.3% to 1.5% by 2023–24.
"The implementation of JJM through improved household water access is one of the contributing factors in reducing the average dropout rate of upper primary school girls as it reduced the time and burden on girls for water collection. Similarly, several women highlighted savings in time and labour which was diverted to other domestic work, self-care or economic opportunities. Further, many women flagged increased safety as the mission reduced the risk of crime or wild animal attacks during long water-fetching journeys," the report pointed out.
However, these positive outcomes are overshadowed by the overarching failures in infrastructure and governance, calling for urgent corrective measures to ensure the mission's objectives are fully realized for all rural households in Karnataka.
