The Ministry of Jal Shakti on Saturday said that tough mountainous terrain, sparsely located habitations and the harsh climatic conditions in Arunachal Pradesh are the major challenges in the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission.

Arunachal Pradesh aims to provide 100 percent tap water connections to all the households in the State by 2023 under the Mission.

Announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019, Jal Jeevan Mission is under implementation in partnership with States with the objective to provide functional household tap connections to every rural household of the country by 2024.

The goal of the Mission is to enable every rural household to assure availability of potable water at a service level of 55 litres per capita per day (lpcd) on a regular and long-term basis so as to bring improvements in lives of people living in rural areas.

“Water availability in Arunachal Pradesh is not an issue, but the challenges faced in implementation are the tough mountainous terrain, sparsely located habitations and the harsh climatic conditions.

“However, the State Govt is making all efforts to cover all villages/ habitations so as potable water reaches every rural household. Jal Jeevan Mission provides a golden opportunity to the State to provide clean, potable water to its citizens in their houses, so that the burden of women and girls is lessened,” the ministry said.

The ministry said that Arunachal Pradesh has again received a very high rainfall in the current monsoon season.

Many of the drinking water supply installations dependent on the surface sources have faced the fury of natural calamities in terms of flash flood, cloud bursts, landslides and erosions.

The Ledum multi village water supply project feeding potable drinking water to Bilat circle, Oyan-Sille Circle and Ruksin headquarter covering 19 villages with population of 21,287 under East Siang District, Arunachal Pradesh was one of the projects damaged badly due to sudden cloudburst at its catchment area.

The intake work which is situated at 1,500 feet above MSL and at a distance of 7 Km from the last motorable road point was hit hard.

The main pipe line (DI 250 mm diameter) was also damaged at various river crossings.