Water taps at every doorstep, what next?

In India, domestic water consumption accounts for a relatively small portion of total freshwater use—typically around 5–7% of annual freshwater withdrawals— while agriculture dominates with around 85%. India has made impressive strides in providing tap water to rural households under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). Launched in 2019, this flagship initiative of the Government of India has dramatically improved access to water in rural areas, with over 80% of households now having Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs). It’s a milestone worth celebrating. But while water is reaching doorsteps, the question remains: will it continue to flow tomorrow, and will it be safe to drink?

As infrastructure is laid down across villages, the responsibility of managing these systems shifts to the Grama Panchayats (GPs), the lowest tier of governance. To keep the taps running, GPs must evolve into micro-utilities—ensuring not just supply, but also quality, sustainability, and equity. This article explores the operational challenges and the urgent need for Grama Panchayats to step into a more empowered, accountable role.

From Infrastructure to Service Delivery

This massive program, which started on August 15, 2019, had the daunting task of providing FHTCs to over 16.13 crore (83%) rural households by 2024 since the coverage of FHTCs was only 17% at that time. The estimated cost was around Rs. 3.6 lakh crore over a five-year period. The amount works out to around Rs. 22,319 per household. Though the initial deadline to achieve the target was by the year 2024, it is now extended up to 2028. The FHTC coverage, as per the JJM dashboard, is around 80% today (March 7, 2025), which is quite impressive.

Allocation and expenditure for JJM over the years

Under the JJM, the fund-sharing pattern between the Central and State/UT governments is 100:0 for Union Territories without legislatures, 90:10 for North-Eastern & Himalayan States and UTs with legislatures, and 50:50 for the rest of the States.

Amount in Rs. Crore

Source: JJM Reports, Format D1 available at ejalashakti.gov.in portal

The budget allocation for JJM for the year 2025-26 is Rs 67,000 crore, which is 67% of the total budget allocated for the Ministry of Jal Shakti. Most of the spending till now is on laying the infrastructure, such as raising mains, overhead tanks, distribution networks, water treatment plants, water testing labs, household taps, etc. The operation and maintenance of these systems are the responsibility of the Gram Panchayat, which is likely to throw up challenges in the days to come.

Operational Challenges: Managing Rural Water Like a Utility

With over 80% of rural households now connected to tap water under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), the spotlight shifts to Gram Panchayats (GPs)—tasked with ensuring 55 litres per capita per day of safe water, every day. This demands that GPs function like micro-utilities, managing everything from source sustainability to service delivery.

Ensuring regular and equitable supply requires tracking daily distribution, especially to institutions like schools and health centres. Water sources, often shared with agriculture, must be sustainably managed through water budgeting and recharge planning, supported by tools like CLART and schemes such as MGNREGS.

Water quality monitoring is sporadic despite available kits and trained personnel. Quarterly testing, lab validation, and public display of results are critical to ensuring health standards (IS 10500).

Operational costs—electricity, wages, maintenance—need transparent calculation. Instead of flat annual charges, GPs must co-create tariffs with communities to recover at least half the costs and encourage conservation.

Efficiency depends on skilled personnel, clear roles, grievance systems, and energy savings. Greywater management is often neglected, risking hygiene. GPs must partner with experts to design and maintain drainage systems.

Learning from frontrunner villages and promoting local innovation can help ensure that every tap connection delivers more than water—safety, dignity, and sustainability. Challenges are many, but there are ways to overcome them.

 Focus on source sustainability

Single village schemes dependent on local groundwater sources need special attention since the extraction of groundwater for irrigation from the same aquifer could adversely impact the functionality of FHTCs. Understanding the groundwater potential considering the geohydrological characteristics and estimating the annual extraction for various uses and then arriving at a water budget will be useful. However, since this exercise needs a scientific lens, the GP functionaries might need support from the district or state level.

Once the groundwater potential is understood, designing appropriate recharge structures by identifying suitable sites is the next step. Some tech tools (such as Composite Land Assessment and Restoration Tool, CLART) freely available and easy to use could come in handy for identifying the recharge interventions and suitable sites. Schemes such as MGNREGS, PMKSY, Atal Bhujal Yojana and grants under the 15th Finance Commission could be utilised for implementing the plans.

It is important to focus on judicious use of limited water resources by incorporating plans for reducing water use (especially in agriculture) and reusing greywater after treatment. Such efforts would contribute to strengthening the drinking water sources.

Develop a robust operational system

Gram Panchayat functionaries and members of the Village Water and Sanitation Committee (VWSC) should work as a team shouldering specific responsibilities for running the water supply system. The pump operators/watermen along with the GP functionaries need to understand their specific roles in running the micro-Utility successfully. It would be useful to categorize their various tasks into different time periods such as daily, weekly, monthly, half year and yearly. Adhering to the tasks as per timelines and keeping proper records are vital for ensuring the expected service delivery.

The service provider (Gram Panchayat in this case) must come up with a system for grievance redressal. The households should be able to raise their issues and bring them to the notice of the GP functionaries for taking corrective actions on a time bound manner. While complaining to the GP member about the issue is a traditionally popular method, technologies can play a role in accepting the grievance, addressing them and notifying the complainant instantly.

Keep track of the quality of water

Water quality is the most neglected area in the domestic water space in India. Poor awareness among the citizens about the quality parameters and their permissible limits is an issue of concern that needs attention. Most of the GPs have been provided with water quality testing kits and a set of personnel trained to use them. It is unfortunate that despite such efforts, there is very limited use of these kits. Unless the community demands to know the quality of water supplied to them, the situation might not change much.

Collecting water samples from all the drinking water sources and also from a few household taps every quarter and testing them using the field testing kits should be a part of the tasks of GP functionaries. The results should be displayed in prominent places, and samples should be sent to the district labs for testing accurately.

Fix tariff and collect the user charges

The Gram Panchayats are expected to fix water tariffs with the guiding principle of recovering the O&M costs, whereas the infrastructure is set up by taxpayers’ money allocated by the Centre and States. The GP should arrive at the operational cost of supplying water to every household by considering the electricity bill, pump operator’s salary, tank cleaning cost, chlorination cost, cost incurred on repairing/replacing distribution lines, etc.

Traditionally, most GPs charge a flat Rs. 360 to Rs. 600 per year for a household for water supply without understanding the actual cost of supply. Generally, it is collected along with the property tax once a year. The citizens are mostly unaware of the water tariff they paid to the GP. If the GP wishes to collect the entire O&M cost from its users, it would need to hold several consultations and discussions in the Gram Sabha to make people aware of the situation and elicit their views on managing O&M costs. The larger issue is the political will to charge for water supply since many state governments have declared dole outs for appeasing the votes.

Identify the skill gaps and upskill the personnel

The personnel responsible for running the water supply system should understand their roles well and equip themselves with the right skills to perform their tasks effectively. Hence, analysing the skill gaps and training them suitably at periodic intervals should be considered seriously.

Community has a big role to play

The primary stakeholders are the community members who benefit if the system functions smoothly and are at the receiving end if there is a breakdown in water supply. It is imperative that they participate in planning and monitoring the system and have a broad understanding of existing accessible water resources, water quality issues, the cost of supply and their role in using this scarce resource judiciously. VWSC members should take it upon themselves to create the needed awareness among the public so that managing the water supply system is not just left to the GP functionaries alone, but the citizens are also actively involved in ensuring its smooth functioning.

The farming community also must chip in by adopting efficient water management practices for their crop production, thereby improving water productivity. The villagers have a big role in maintaining community hygiene by managing waste safely.

Community awareness and their participation are the keys to success. Strong leadership is a huge catalyst in bringing the diverse village community together around a common cause – safe water to every household on a regular basis, in this case.