India’s investment in water sector to be $210 billion by 2024, says Union minister Shekhawat

As per the Jal Jeevan Mission dashboard, 54 percent Indian households have access to tap water, compared to 16 percent who had tap connections in 2019 (Representational Image: Pixabay)

India’s investment in the water sector will be at $210 billion by 2024, the highest in the world, Union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has said, adding managing water was “our collective responsibility”.

The minister was speaking at the 11th Isha Leadership Academy flagship programme “Isha Insight: The DNA of Success” in Coimbatore on November 26.

“India’s estimated investment in the water sector from 2019 to 2024 at $210 billion is the highest in the world,” Shekhawat said, adding everyone would have to work together to manage water.

In a conversation with Isha Foundation founder Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Shekhawat talked about the government’s flagship programme Jal Jeevan Mission which aims to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual tap connections to all households in rural India by 2024.

Vasudev applauded the Jal Jeevan Mission for being community-managed. “It is government-installed but community-managed. That is a way forward for our country – the government doing the service all the time is never going to work till the last mile,” he said.

Access to water

As per the Jal Jeevan Mission dashboard, 54 percent of Indian households now have access to tap water compared to 16 percent in 2019.

Not only access but the quality of water, too, was part of the mission, the minister said. The ministry was engaging with rural communities to leverage technology, and create water and sanitation committees in villages, he said.

These committees have 21 members and at least half of them are women. “We started training the ladies in these villages and gave them hand-held devices to test water quality on 12 basic parameters. They can test the water frequently in a month or weeks,” Shekhawat said.

Recognising the role of Internet of Things and sensor-based solutions, the ministry invited startups to contribute in the area. The ministry held a hackathon, where 220 startups registered and two were chosen to serve at more than 100 locations.

”Online real-time report of the quality of the water which is being distributed comes to my office. Everything, whatever I'm talking about, the entire mission is in the public domain,” the minister said.