Jal Jeevan Mission is shifting from coverage to service delivery. Examine the challenges of source sustainability and O&M.

Jal Jeevan Mission raised rural tap coverage from 3.23 crore households (17%) in 2019 to 15.44 crore (79.74%) by February 2025 [1]. Yet only 76% of households have a fully functional connection — adequate, regular and of safe quality — against 87% with a tap [2]. The residual gap is not one of pipes but of sources and upkeep.

Why the shift was necessary

• A connection counted is not water delivered; roughly one in nine tap-owning households does not receive the promised service [2].
• The 9th India International Water Week (2026), themed "Climate Resilient Water Management", accordingly framed the next phase around adequate, regular, safe and sustainable service [4].

Challenges of source sustainability

• Most rural schemes draw on groundwater, but the Stage of Extraction is 60.63%, with 730 of 6,762 units (10.8%) 'Over-exploited' — Punjab at 76.47% [3]. A tap in such a block may outlive its aquifer.
• Quality, the weakest of the four promises: nitrate exceeds limits in 506 districts, fluoride in 261 and arsenic in 47 [2] — treatment at source, not more pipe, is the fix.
• Irrigation, not households, drives extraction; community-led recharge adds water but does not curb pumping, so recharge alone cannot make a block safe.
• Reuse is constrained too: treatment covers only 44% of 72,368 MLD urban sewage, and 38% of assessed river stretches are BOD-polluted [2].

Challenges of O&M

• Fund flow: the 2025-26 revised estimate fell to Rs 17,000 crore against Rs 67,000 crore budgeted, with no fresh central release to states [2].
• Accountability: of Rs 129 crore in penalties on contractors, only 9% was recovered; unrecovered penalties deter nobody [2].
• Water supply being a State subject (Entry 17), village committees must run schemes without assured tariffs or O&M finance, while cost per household has crossed Rs 50,000 [2].

JJM 2.0, extended to December 2028 [5], should therefore tie central transfers to verified functionality, bar new groundwater schemes in over-exploited units, and adopt Atal Bhujal Yojana's outcome-linked model. Since climate resilience begins with water resilience [4], securing sources and sustaining assets is the surest route to SDG-6.