Goa, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu become 1st ‘Har Ghar Jal’ certified state and UT

NEW DELHI: Goa and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (D&NH and D&D) became the first ‘Har Ghar Jal’ certified state and union territory (UT) in India, respectively. The villagers of both the state and UT have passed a resolution declaring their village as ‘Har Ghar Jal’.

Passage of the resolution by the villagers means that all the households in a village have access to safe drinking water via taps. A total of 2.63 lakhs rural households in Goa and 85,156 rural households of D&NH and D&D have been provided with an active tap connection.

The certification process is outlined in the Margdarshika of the Jal Jeevan Mission – a flagship scheme of the Government of India. The field engineer provides a completion certificate regarding the scheme to the Panchayat after which villagers have to confirm that they are regularly receiving the prescribed water supply and not a single household is left out. The villagers also confirm that all the schools, anganwadi centres and other public institutions are getting a regular supply of water.

In all 378 villages of Goa, Water and Sanitation Committee (WSC) or Paani Samiti has been constituted, while in D&NH and D&D, a total of 96 villages have constituted the WSC. Under the Har Ghar Jal programme, the WSC committees are responsible to look after the operation, maintenance and repair of water supply infrastructure in their area of jurisdiction.

The sub-committees of Gram Panchayats are responsible for the collection of user charges that will be deposited in a bank account and could be used for repair works in the future.