Meghalaya stands second in tap water coverage under Jal Jeevan Mission.

Shillong: Meghalaya was awarded the second position for good tap water coverage in rural areas as part of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on Sunday.

The award was presented by the President of India, Draupadi Murmu, and received by Minister in-charge of Public Health Engineering Department, Meghalaya, Rankton Langdoh Tongkhar.
The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti on Sunday observed Swachh Bharat Diwas (SBD) to honor the exemplary work done by the States and Union Territories.

The functionality of the tap connection was evaluated by the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti through a third party, Hindustan Thomson Pvt. 2022 in rural areas of all states and union territories.
Based on the exercise conducted for the category of over 60% tap water coverage, Puducherry and Goa were felicitated. In the less than 60% tap water coverage category, Tamil Nadu and Meghalaya bagged first and second positions.

Till date, the PHE department in the state has completed 40% of the work with maximum implementation of JJM in Garo Hills.
In August this year, Tongkhar had said that the JJM would be completed by the March 2024 deadline.

He informed that the department has sanctioned the scheme for about 5,45,000 households out of which 5,89,888 households have been targeted.
Several challenges were also faced while implementing the scheme. Apart from the terrain, heavy rains this year created a major hurdle, Tongkhar said.