The Jal Shakti Ministry has set its sights on owards accomplishing the newly established goals of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) and the Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G) by the year 2025 after failing to meet the initial grtasp 2024 deadline for ensuring the Installation of tap water connections in each average household in rural areas. Alongside these objectives, the Ministry aims to ensure universal Open Defecation Free (ODF) Plus status for villages and continue advancing ecological restoration efforts under the Namami Gange Programme
Currently, over 15.375 million of the total 1936 million rural households receiving the tap water connection have succeeded in leaving about 400 million households without connection. While eleven states and Union Territories have already achieved complete rural tap water coverage, larger states like Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Kerala, and West Bengal were behind with less than 60% coverage according to official data.
Sanitation remains a parallel priority. Over 95% of villages in India have declared themselves ODF Plus, which includes not just toilet construction but also solid-liquid waste management and holistic sanitation practices. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra lead in ODF Plus villages, with Madhya Pradesh also excelling with over 49,000 villages achieving the “model” category in sanitation standards.
The Namami Gange Programme has made notable progress in ecological restoration, with efforts such as reintroducing over 1,400 gharials and nearly 1,900 turtles into the Ganga and its tributaries. The Ministry is also working on wetland conservation and plans to afforest 1,34,104 hectares within the Ganga basin by 2025.
By achieving these targets, the Ministry aims to create a sustainable and healthier rural environment, ensuring access to clean water, better sanitation, and ecological restoration across rural India by 2025.
